DUSSELDORF, GERMANY - Thermoforming equipment at K'95 featured quick mold changes, faster cycles and twin-sheet forming and electric servo drives instead of pneumatic and hydraulic power systems. Sencorp Systems Inc. of Hyannis, Mass., showed its new servo-driven 4300SD thermoforming machine with three independently controlled platens. The company also said it will introduce technology that allows a mold change in less than 15 minutes, using two people.
Maximum forming area on the 4300SD is 401/2 inches square. The machine has a clamping force of 80 tons.
The platens have constant platen speeds with infinitely variable control settings. The third platen, the clamp frame platen, is servo-operated. Pneumatic operation can be ordered as an option.
The company also demonstrated its Series 2000 former, a compact, multipurpose system that can run as many as 30 cycles a minute.
A new annular die to extrude foamed insulation and packaging material from polyolefins and styrenes allows die-opening adjustments on the fly.
Sencorp also introduced a blowing agent metering system that pumps two separate agents simultaneously. The system allows the use of carbon dioxide blowing agents.
British machinery maker Shelley Thermoformers International Ltd., part of Italy's Cannon Group, said it sold a twin-sheet thermoforming system to a major U.S. refrigerator company and announced a deal to distribute downstream cutting equipment made by Belotti srl of Italy.
Kevin Teal, managing director of Shelley, said the company could not reveal the name of the appliance maker. According to a company newsletter, the Linearform system was made at Cannon's U.S. factory in Cranberry Township, Pa. The pressure former has hydraulic power and a fully automatic cycle for tool change. A computer adjusts material size, molds and transfer systems in four-and-a-half minutes.
Teal, interviewed at K'95 in Dusseldorf, said Cannon Shelley delivered a turnkey system that includes thermoforming and Cannon's CarDio foam producing system, which features liquid carbon dioxide as a blowing agent.
Cannon Shelley is based in Huntingdon, England.
Belotti, a 13-year-old firm in Bergamo, Italy, makes three-axis and five-axis routers. Three technologies are available: router, water-jet and laser cutting.
Belotti has developed a special machine for routing bathtubs and shower panels, formed from acrylic reinforced with polyester and glass fibers. The RP 5-4525 boasts a portal structure to improve stability and rigidity, plus a long stroke to handle large components, and auto-matic loading and unloading.
Brown Machinery Division sold its show-floor machine, a twin-sheet thermoformer, to Sohner GmbH of Schwaigern, Germany.
Sohner makes shipping trays, containers and pallets. The machine is Brown R-244ETS rotary twin-sheet former. Purchase price was not disclosed.
The electric-platen machine has outside mold dimensions of 52 inches by 60 inches. Cycle time is less than three minutes.
Brown Machine Division, based in Beaverton, Mich., is a unit of John Brown Plastics Machinery Ltd. of Surrey, England.
ZMD International Inc. of Paramount, Calif., announced an automatic in-line thermoformer for the packaging industry, with a plug-assist, priced at less than $20,000.
A KIS-722 at K'95 was making child-size helmets.
Maximum forming area is 24 inches by 24 inches. Features include a fully functional top platen for plug assist or pre-draw vacuum box applications, a 24-inch stroke on the top platen and 12-inch stroke on the bottom platen and the ability to make parts 6 inches deep.
