CHICAGO (July 5, 5:25 p.m. EDT) — The big news at NPE 2000 for Reed-Prentice Ltd. was Reed's return to the market for horizontal-clamp injection presses, with a Brazilian-made machine. Reed also made news that was smaller — literally.
Reed debuted its line of Manumold presses, so small they can be wheeled around a plant. Manumold presses come in clamping forces of 13 and 33 tons. Reed demonstrated a press with a hydraulic bridge clamp during the Chicago show, but the company also sells a shuttle machine configuration.
Reed also dropped down a size on its vertical-clamp Duplimatic line, offering a 33-ton model to go with existing Duplimatics with 75 and 100 tons of clamping force.
Reed, based in West Springfield, Mass., began making injection presses again in 1998, after the firm ceased production in 1990. The new company's first machine was the Duplimatic. Reed said its new 33-ton Duplimatic, with a shuttle table, boasts a table size of 59 inches by 7.8 inches. It has a C-frame design.
Reed said the small Duplimatic is designed for three-piece molds and cordset-type products, small inserted electronic and automotive parts and overmolded components.
Officials of Reed and its Brazilian partner on horizontal presses, Indústrias Romi SA, displayed the first Brazilian-made press at NPE, a 330-ton toggle press. Romi, the largest injection press maker in Latin America, is building the machines at its factory in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, Brazil.
The horizontal press is being sold under the Reed-Romi brand name. In Chicago, the press ran an 8-liter, thin-wall bucket with a cycle time of less than nine seconds.
