Conair's granulator keeps a low profile
Conair Group Inc. is keeping a low profile with its new optical-disc granulator.
The tiny unit fits easily under or beside an injection press, for grinding sprues generated in the molding of compact discs or digital versatile discs.
The feed-cutting chamber houses a staggered rotor fitted with replaceable cassette knives that are slanted, giving a scissors-cutting action. The staggered design makes more cuts per revolution than rotors with conventional, full-width blades, while reducing the chance of jamming or shearing.
An all-stainless-steel cutting chamber is completely sealed, to prevent the risk of regrind contamination.
The optical-quality regrind can be fed back into the virgin resin, and back into more discs.
The CD granulator is priced at about $5,500.
Tel. (412) 312-6000, fax (412) 312-6320.
Aimmco's system speeds mold making
Aimmco, a toolmaker in Vancouver, Wash., has patented its Lightning Base, said to reduce the time and cost of making a mold.
The system uses one common mold base, with inserts that can be changed without removing the mold base from the injection press.
Lightning Base incorporates many mold features, such as parting-line top locks, guided ejection, multiple sprue and water locations, ejector locks and early return pins.
Tel. (360) 737-9655, fax (360) 737-9664.
Chen Hsong offers high-speed press
Chen Hsong Machinery Co. Ltd. introduced a ``superhigh-speed'' injection press with injection rates of 600-1,000 millimeters a second at the Hong Kong International Plastics Exhibition, held March 22-25.
The Hong Kong press builder also held seminars on high-speed and all-electric molding technology during the trade show.
Chen Hsong developed the fleet-footed press, dubbed the SM-60HS, with the Industrial Technology Research Institute of Taiwan. Chen Hsong claims it was the first company to develop superfast injection presses successfully in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan.
At the trade show, the SM-60HS press demonstrated in-mold decorating by adding a foil label inside the mold.
Chen Hsong's North American headquarters, Chen Hsong Machinery (Canada) Co. Ltd., is based in Keswick, Ontario.
Tel. (905) 989-2539, fax (905) 989-2887, e-mail [email protected] chenhsong.com.hk.
Sandretto machines work in thin-wall use
Sandretto Industrie SpA of Turin, Italy, said its high-speed Mach line of Metalmeccanica presses comes in four clamping-force sizes, from 165-396 tons.
Sandretto said the Mach machines are well-suited for molding packaging and technical parts with thin- wall sections or a long flow path. Each press can be equipped with screws of three different diameters.
Mach presses have an electric screw drive. Two fixed pumps drive the accumulator-driven hydraulic system with proportional valves, which powers clamp opening and closing, injection and part ejection.
An SEF 2000 controller runs the Mach presses.
The company's U.S. headquarters, Sandretto USA Inc., is based in Freedom, Pa.
Tel. (724) 775-4255, fax (724) 775-4246.
Envirokare presents FlowForming package
A company in Lake Mary, Fla., called Envirokare Tech Inc. is providing turnkey systems to continuously compound and compression mold thermoplastic parts with long-fiber reinforcements, using a low-pressure molding process.
Envirokare is the worldwide licensee of a technology called TPF (for Thermoplastic FlowForming), invented by Dale Polk, president of Thermoplastic Composite Design in Mims, Fla.
Running at low pressure of 75 pounds per square inch of compression force means parts can be run on smaller-tonnage compression molding machines. The parts also are stress-free.
Envirokare does not manufacture machinery, but the company sources all equipment and controls to provide a turnkey package, said Erwin Pruefer, head of marketing. Envirokare negotiates exclusive TPF licenses for specific products and markets.
The technology is fully automated. ``Ours is a hands-free process from compounding through part extraction,'' Pruefer said.
The continuous process has throughputs ranging from 600 to more than 4,000 pounds an hour, so Pruefer stresses it is best-suited for high-volume production and large structural parts. Products made by TPF so far include X-ray-transparent stretchers, pallets, agricultural parts, housing panels and radomes. The part sizes have reached more than 32 square feet and more than 90 pounds.
TPF uses a computer-controlled feeding and blending system for the resin and fibers. An extruder compounds the melt at a precisely controlled rate and pressure, then delivers the material directly onto the open mold. The part is removed after compression molding and rapid, in-mold cooling.
Tel. (407) 977-0217, e-mail [email protected]
Brampton introduces more winder options
Brampton Engineering Inc. has added new options for roll size and more efficient handling on its film winders.
The company in Brampton, Ontario, developed a simple shaft-handling system for nonpivoting air shafts. A hoist lifts the roll and air shaft to a shaft holder stand, which clamps onto one end of the air shaft. A roll handler removes the roll and a new core is inserted. The shaft then is unclamped and the hoist returns the shaft to the winder.
On winders with pivoting shafts, the hoist supports the free end of the shaft until the handler takes the weight of the roll and pulls the roll of the shaft.
``Our customers like this inexpensive alternative to an automated roll-handling system,'' said President Bill Wybenga.
Tel. (905) 793-3000, fax (905) 793-1753, e-mail [email protected]
Gusmer introduces towable PU mobile rig
Gusmer Machinery Group Inc. of Lakewood, N.J., is selling spray-on roofers a mobile spray rig, a complete polyurethane roofing system on a trailer that can be towed by a three-quarter-ton truck.
In the past, contractors had to cobble together makeshift rigs, pulling together the spray gun, hoses, chemical tanks, compressor and electrical generator. The mobile rig includes all equipment in one trailer.
Tel. (732) 370-9000, fax (732) 905-8968, e-mail [email protected]