Color measuring tool runs on Windows PCs
Datacolor International's Chroma-Sensor 45 spectrophotometer, a lightweight, hand-held, color-measuring instrument, runs on Windows-based software.
CS-45 is part of the Charlotte, N.C., firm's new ColorTools Express system. Another new technology, Colorite, is designed for fast testing of color information.
Tel. (704) 357-0400, fax (704) 329-9925.
Groupe Sidel offers SBO 18 blow molder
Paris-based Groupe Sidel unveiled its SBO 18 Series2 blow molding machine, which can produce 25,200 PET bottles an hour using 18 molds.
Each mold makes 1,400 bottles an hour — a 17 percent increase the company gained by reducing inertia of the blow-molding wheel and adding innovations in guides and high-speed transfer mechanisms.
Sidel improved the oven efficiency more than 25 percent, giving it much more reserve power for processing a wider range of preform thicknesses and lengths. At the same time, it cuts energy consumption by 20 percent.
Operators can make adjustments without touching the machine, via an operator interface. Sidel's U.S. headquarters is in Norcross, Ga.
Tel. (770) 449-8085, fax (770) 449-0084.
Turk cartridge heater boasts a short length
Turk + Hillinger GmbH has developed a short, but powerful, cartridge heater.
Turk + Hillinger of Tuttlingen, Germany, said customers often request a high wattage in a heater with a short length. Turk + Hillinger engineers reduced the length of the unheated ends of their heater to achieve a maximum heated length within very short total lengths.
Tel. +49 (74) 617-0140, fax +49 (74) 617-8218.
SAS crafts degater for injection molding
SAS Automation of Xenia, Ohio, has created a robotic degater station for injection molding.
The degater mounts directly to the robot beam, off the floor and out of the way of machine operators. It features a quick-change chuck system.
Nippers cut off sprues while vacuum cups and pliers on the end-of-arm tooling keep the parts and runner secure.
Tel. (937) 372-5255, fax (937) 372-5555.
LCI unveils system for filtering, heating
The new polymer filtration system from LCI Corp.'s Fluid Systems Division has a heat-transfer-medium boiler, which gives even heating.
The Charlotte, N.C., company's Packaged Vapor Heated Polymer Filter System is a closed heater that requires no pumps, valves or moving parts. The boiler uses electric immersion heaters to vaporize the heat-transfer medium. The vapors rise up to the heat exchanger, which surrounds the filter vessel. The vessel absorbs the vapor's heat, which condenses and falls back into the boiler.
Tel. (704) 394-8341, fax (704) 393-8590, e-mail [email protected]
Merged companies update Profitmaster
Eurotherm Gauging International Inc. acquired LFE Industrial Systems Inc. in 1997, and now the companies have released their first new product together: Profitmaster System 21.
The product replaces the LFE Profitmaster for measuring and controlling film and sheet. The company will continue to supply Eurotherm Gauging Systems' CIMline gauging system for biaxially oriented films and circuit-board coating.
Profitmaster System 21 combines its own measurement and control module with a Windows NT-based operator interface.
Eurotherm Gauging Systems is based in Billerica, Mass.
The company displayed System 21 at K'98.
Eurotherm recently was acquired by Siebe plc, parent company of machine controls maker Barber-Colman Co.
Tel. (978) 663-2300, fax. (978) 663-0089.
Smartweave software monitors resin flow
Holometrix Inc. and Micromet Instruments Inc., both of Bedford, Mass., have developed Smartweave software to analyze the flow front in composites manufacturing processes that use resin infusion, such as resin transfer molding, Scrimp and vacuum-assisted RTM.
Smartweave continuously monitors the resin flow front during mold filling and resin curing by measuring resistance at locations in the mold.
Included in the system are a sensor grid, an electronics package to check the grid rapidly and a Windows-based LabView software program that coordinates the data.
Tel. (781) 275-3300, fax (781) 275-3705.
Baluff says senosr is the world's tiniest
Balluff Inc. claims its Micropulse sensor is the world's smallest profile-type transducer.
The sensor tracks the position of the clamp, ejector and injection unit on injection and blow molding machines. It provides linearity of plus or minus 0.02 percent, and stroke lengths to 142 inches.
Balluff of Florence, Ky., designed Micropulse as a substitute for rod-style feedback devices.
Tel. (800) 543-8390, fax (606) 727-7752.
TechniDrill touting 4-axis drilling unit
TechniDrill Systems Inc. of Kent, Ohio, introduced a four-axis machine for drilling holes in molds for plastics.
The computer numerically controlled Series 200A drills holes as large as 2 inches in diameter. Its drilling stroke is 60 inches. A controller stores 1 million characters.
Tel. (800) 914-5863, fax (330) 678-9981.