DUSSELDORF, GERMANY - Davis-Standard, while showing off some pipe, profile and sheet extrusion machinery developments at K'95, chose to direct the spotlight to its new Epic III data-acquisition control system, due to become available early next year. This open-architecture, Windows-based, touch-screen controller can be used to help run virtually any extrusion application, Gerard J. Sposato, senior sales engineer for sheet systems for the Pawcatuck, Conn.-based company, said in an interview at the firm's K show booth in Dusseldorf. While the system uses off-the-shelf hardware, Davis-Standard, a division of Crompton & Knowles Corp., has copyrighted the software, and customers can customize it further themselves by using the program's ``tool kit'' feature.
A basic Epic III system, running one extruder, can cost between $40,000 and $60,000, but Sposato stressed the price varies widely, depending on the options chosen and the type of product being monitored.
The system will be available in multiple languages, including English, French, Spanish, German and Chinese.
Davis-Standard also highlighted at the K show its so-called ``hands-off'' sheet operation, which provides automatic sheet-thickness adjustments, all monitored by the Epic III controller. The system features a gear-driven Ex-M-Plar II ``upstack'' roll stand, with individual, closed-loop water heat transfer systems for each roll. It is said to automatically adjust the flex lip, the lower die lip, the roll gap, and average web thickness, thereby eliminating the need for manual intervention.
As previously reported, Davis-Standard also showed two new Repiquet pipe extruders - a 90-millimeter, 30:1 grooved feed extruder, and a 90-millimeter parallel twin-screw model, as well as a new L-I profile extrusion die for small-diameter machines.
Separately, at its own, small K booth in the U.S. pavilion, Davis-Standard subsidiary Killion Extruders Inc. displayed a new precision servo cutter from Versa, which Killion acquired earlier this year.
The unit, which can handle a maximum 1-inch-diameter tubular profile, delivers 350 cuts per minute in the on-demand mode, and 2,400 cuts per minute in the flywheel mode, said Dee Dee Brave, a Killion international sales engineer.
The Versa cutter costs about $25,000, she said.
