SIG 64-cavity Premax molds PET preforms
SIG Corpoplast GmbH & Co. KG of Hamburg, Germany, has introduced a 64-cavity Premax injection molding system for PET preforms.
Previously, SIG offered molds with 48 and 96 cavities. The Premax64 also has been improved, with a new compact mold, a faster toggle unit and an integrated control system that overlaps motions of the robot and clamping unit.
A new ``active'' post-pressure module allows the press to build up the active pressure at 90 percent of cavity fill, instead of 100 percent. That means the post pressure already is built up during final filling, so there is no lost time for switching over. Also, the pitch distance of the cavities has been reduced, so the 64-cavity preform mold runs on a 353-ton injection press.
Separately, SIG Blowtec of Bonn, Germany, announced a processor in the Far East has blow molded a 71/2-foot-long part used on a recreational vehicle, on a BlowTec 2-120/100 press. The complex ABS part has several molded-in inserts. SIG did not identify the molder.
SIG Corpoplast and Sig Blowtec are units of SIG Plastics International GmbH of Essen, Germany. The U.S. unit, SIG Plastics Technologies (USA) Inc., is based in North Branch, N.J.
Tel. (908) 252-9350 or (908) 252-9807, e-mail [email protected] plastics.com.
Black Clawson EZT targets oriented film
Fulton, N.Y.-based Black Clawson Converting Machinery LLC is marketing an easy-thread winder and roll changer, dubbed the EZT winder, to makers of oriented film.
The closed-loop pressure roll system, which incorporates Black Clawson's nip control system, winds PET, bioriented polypropylene, polystyrene and other oriented films with enough nip to produce a tight roll, without deforming the web over the caliper band areas across the roll.
A roll changer opens up to give a straight threading path through the web, providing continuous winding.
Other EZT winder features include patented, dual-direction, stationary knife technology, for full reliability of making a straight line, no fold-back transfers to the new core at any speed and a precision dancer with ``shock-absorbing'' capability on the slack takeup after a break in the web.
In business news, Black Clawson has commissioned a new cast stretch film line for Perfiles de Pl stico Flexibles SA de CV in Naucalpan, Mexico. The machine can produce more than 31,000 pounds a day of five-layer polyethylene stretch film, at 1,500 feet per minute at a finished width of 86 inches. The line has four extruders and a flat die from Extrusion Dies Inc.
Tel. (315) 598-7121, fax (315) 593-0396, e-mail [email protected]
Twinshot redesigns coinjection system
Twinshot Technologies has changed the design on its lower-cost coinjection molding technology. Instead of two screws, one inside another, Twinshot's new Version II uses a single screw with a two-stage design similar to a vented barrel, running through a single barrel.
The ratio of material is controlled externally by starve-feeding one or both of the screw stages.
Twinshot Technologies markets the process for Community Products LLC of Rifton, N.Y., which developed it for its own injection molding operation.
The initial method used one screw inside another, hollowed-out screw. Depending on whether one or both screws turned, the injection unit delivered one shot, then the second. That process no longer will be used, officials said.
Twinshot II uses two hoppers at different points along the screw. The first material enters the screw at the first-stage section. At the transition point to the second stage of the screw, the melt moves into a channel through the core of the second section, and at that point, the second material enters the outside, flighted part of the screw.
Twinshot inventor Joel Thompson said the new method offers several advantages. ``Recovery time is much quicker - even faster than an equivalent conventional screw - because both materials extrude simultaneously. Independent heat control on two melting zones also is possible. Overall cost is reduced because one simple screw replaces two more-complex ones.''
Twinshot II can be retrofitted to all injection presses, regardless of injection piston design. The new method also can be scaled down to much smaller screws than the original process.
Spirex Corp., a Youngstown, Ohio, screw and barrel maker, is selling Twinshot to the retrofit market.
Tel. (330) 726-4000, fax (330) 726-9437, e-mail sal[email protected]
Benchmaster 30 unit measures tubes, rods
The Benchmaster 30 from Zumbach Electronics Corp. of Mount Kisco, N.Y., measures diameters of products such as plastic tubing, rods and many other transparent or opaque products.
The off-line device uses a noncontact laser scanner. It can print out a report and be networked to a larger system.
Tel. (914) 241-7080, fax (914) 241-7096, e-mail [email protected]
Wayne line laminates nonstandard substrates
A new laboratory line from Wayne Machine & Die Co. is designed to laminate thermoplastics onto nonstandard substrates such as steel, composites and engineering materials.
Larger-diameter rolls offer minimal bending of the substrate, which can build up stress, said Totowa, N.J.-based Wayne.
Tel. (973) 256-7374, fax (973) 256-1778, e-mail [email protected]
ARC predicts growth for PC-based controls
ARC Advisory Group in Dedham, Mass., has released studies on personal-computer-based controllers and enterprise resource planning software.
ARC predicts the PC-based, open-control software will grow 24 percent a year through 2006. Most software suppliers now offer more than basic programmable logic controls, and offer features such as links to a factory database, a Web server, schedulers and functions for running computer numerically controlled equipment.
As factories move into an age of Internet-powered collaborative manufacturing, it will become critical to have a network of intelligent sensors to collect shop-floor data. According to the report by Dick Slansky, ARC senior analyst: ``The long-elusive promise of `sensor-to-boardroom' connectivity will be realized as these Web-related open-control systems are put in place.' ''
A second report, by ARC Vice President Steve Clouther, analyzes the market for ERP systems, which tie together all factory data. The ERP market got a huge boost from Y2K fears, but then sales fell off a cliff. Sales hit about $15 billion in 1999, as Tier 1 firms with sales of more than $1 billion invested heavily in new systems. In 2001, ARC said, sales fell to $9 billion.
Despite the economic downturn, the market will rebuild over the next five years and reach $9.5 billion by 2006. Software vendors expect growth in Tier 2 and 3 firms. Meanwhile, after-sales service has become very important.
Tel. (781) 471-1000, fax (781) 471-1100.
