Yushin 3-axis robots reduce cycle times
Yushin America Inc. has made its HOP III line of sprue pickers faster.
The three-axis robots are designed for use on injection molding machines with clamping forces of 25-500 tons. They come with main arm strokes of 450-millimeters, 550mm, 750mm and 900mm.
The two smaller models, the HOP III-450 and HOP III-550, can now run dry cycles faster than 3.5 seconds. The larger two models run 6 seconds for the HOP III-750 and 6.5 seconds for the HOP III-900.
Cranston, R.I.-based Yushin also now offers software for programming robots off-line. The Flexible Teaching Software is designed for use with Netliner VN and VN-II Series robots.
Tel. (401) 463-1800, fax (401) 463-1810.
Böhler shows steel for making molds
Böhler, a division of Böhler-Uddeholm Corp., exhibited at its first NPE in Chicago, emphasizing stainless steel and powder metallurgy.
Böhler showed selected grades of steel made in its Austrian mill.
Grade M390, a proprietary powder metallurgy steel, with a combination of corrosion resistance and wear resistance, is suitable for making molds to run abrasive resins, according to the Rolling Meadows, Ill., firm.
Tel. (847) 577-2220, fax (847) 577-8028.
Emhart unit offering injection mold insert
The Industrial Division of Emhart Fastening Teknologies introduced the Dodge Ultra-Mold threaded insert for injection molds.
Conventional inserts are made from a single piece of material. That makes it impossible to thread the entire insert and results in dead space not used for fastening. The new Ultra-Mold insert is made from two separate pieces of brass, with threads tapped completely through the insert body.
Based in Shelton, Conn., Emhart Fastening Teknologies is a division of Black & Decker Corp. of Towson, Md.
Tel. (203) 924-9341, fax (203) 925-3109.
RG42 rotary grinds large plastic pieces
ReTech Industries Inc. showed its new RG42 rotary grinder at NPE 1997.
The High Point, N.C., company said the RG42 grinds large pieces of plastic waste without the need for prior reduction. It runs at low speeds and low horsepower.
Features include ``positive-feed'' controls for increased output with less wear and a single-cutting rotor design with cutter inserts.
Tel. (910) 886-6070, fax (910) 886-4479.
Makino promotes machining center
Metalworking machine maker Makino Inc. took a lot of Nurb to NPE 1997.
Makino, which sells equipment to mold makers in the plastics industry, showed the A66 Horizontal Machining Center. The A66 is the first machining center on the market that has Nurbs, according to Steve Colston, marketing manager for Makino's Die/Mold Division in Mason, Ohio.
Nurbs is a technology that takes a computer-aided design of a mold and moves the data directly to the machine tool's controller. By avoiding the step of defining the cutter path, defined in a series of points to be connected, Nurbs moves the tool in a smooth curve. That eliminates the series of tiny stair-steps common to metalworking by computer-aided manufacturing. Those stair-steps have to be smoothed by hand by mold finishers.
Nurbs stands for nonuniform rational B splines.
Makino claims Nurbs can slash 30 percent off mold-building cycle times.
The A66 can remove metal at the high rate of speed using carbide-coated cutting tools.
Colston said metalworking machines now take off thinner sections of metal, but move faster than ever before.
``We're trying to finesse material off instead of muscle it off,'' he said in an interview during NPE at Makino's booth.
Tel. (513) 573-7200, fax (513) 573-7360.
Boothroyd Dewhurst launches software
Boothroyd Dewhurst Inc. has released its software called Early Cost Estimating for Injection Molding, version 2.0., which operates in Microsoft Windows.
Peter Dewhurst, PDI principal, said the software focuses on the earliest stages of design, before costs are locked in. Total costs are then broken down into four main areas: molds, processing, materials and secondary costs, such as printing and label application.
The software is part of the Wakefield, R.I.-based company's Design for Manufacture series.
Tel. (401) 783-5840, fax (401) 783-6872 or e-mail [email protected]
Plast-Control touts layer ratio controller
Newburyport, Mass.-based Plast-Control Inc. is offering a stripped-down version of its Gravimetric extrusion control systems.
The layer ratio controller can control two to five extruders in a co-extrusion line, but without the option of blending resins. A single gravimetric hopper is mounted on each extruder flange to monitor throughput rates of each extruder.
The system also follows line speed and calculates the linear amount of product extruded.
Tel. (508) 462-0306, fax (508) 462-1425.
Zumbach introduces measuring sensors
Zumbach Electronics Corp. offers a new noncontact, laser gauging sensor for measuring processes such as extrusion, wire drawing and polishing.
Zumbach of Mount Kisco, N.Y., said the ODAC 2 has a scanning frequency of 240 scans per second. The measuring field covers 0.08 inches.
Zumbach also introduced a new series of UMAC ultrasonic wall-thickness sensors for extrusion. The sensors can be mounted close to the extruder, at the point where polymer orientation is stable.
Tel. (914) 241-7080, fax (914) 241-7096.
CMI makes available Trans4m software
CMI-Competitive Solutions Inc. of Grand Rapids, Mich., has released new software for high-volume repetitive and mixed-mode manufacturing using a single, integrated architecture.
The software is called Trans4m for Windows 7.00 Repetitive Manufacturing System, which uses Microsoft's Visual Basic version 5.0 Enterprise Edition.
CMI-Competitive Solutions said it is the largest vendor of Unix ERP systems in the North American automotive industry.
Tel. (616) 957-4444, fax (616) 957-3924.
Hoechst develops gear testing machine
A better way to test plastic gears is promised by Summit, N.J.-based Hoechst Technical Polymers.
HTP, which supplies resins to the gear market, announced a computer-controlled P-GEAR machine has been developed by Lewis Research Inc., a wear testing laboratory in Lewes, Del. The lab will operate the machine for Hoechst. The company also is free to market the machine independently.
The machine tests different gear materials under varying conditions of load, temperature and lubrication.
Tel. (908) 598-4161, fax (908) 598-4165.