Guill Tool introduces array of extrusion dies
New extrusion dies are flowing out of Guill Tool & Engineering Co. Inc. like tubing out of an extruder.
At NPE 2003, the company in West Warwick, R.I., introduced:
* Series 900 in-line tubing dies, which boast custom tooling at off-the-shelf prices. The dies can extrude hose or pipe ranging from 0.005 inch to 8 inches in diameter, in one to five layers, for markets such as food service, automotive, industrial, telecommunications and medical. Spiderless in-line heads result in no spider lines and allow more room for air, which eliminates cold legs that can inhibit product output. Highlights are a patent-pending FeatherTouch adjustment in the die holder and a cartridge-style ball assembly that does not require the loosening of retaining screws to make adjustments, Guill claims.
* Series 400 corrugated extrusion tooling improves crush resistance and enhances product durability. Features of the patent-pending line include a multiport spiral flow design that balances material distribution to eliminate weld lines, increasing the strength of the hose or pipe.
* Rotary/oscillating crossheads that can eliminate ovality and weld lines, and improve the ability to cross-link various materials. The crossheads are stainless steel. The rotary die extrudes a polymer chain aligned in a radial manner vs. the traditional longitudinal direction, so the extruded shape is about 30 percent stronger yet uses less resin than standard extrusion, said Bill Conley, sales manager.
* The Multiflow valve, which allows extruders to make three-layer, four-layer or five-layer tubing, while using fewer extruders. In the three-layer configuration, melt is fed from an extruder and divided inside the manifold, to form both the inner and outer layers of the final product.
* Low-volume medical extrusion tooling designed for accurate, multilayer, thin-wall extrusion of medical fluoropolymers.
* The Syncroflow design that extrudes rubber and plastics simultaneously, in the same tooling. The tooling has a barrier that insulates and separates the extruded materials from each other.
* A line of crosshead and in-line dies called FlexSpiral, that improves roundness of the product, reducing material usage. FlexSpiral can extrude one to five layers and has multifeed port locations.
* Equaflow tooling, designed for products that marry plastic and wood such as thin strips or trim-type molding, or coextruded products such as a wood-fiber core covered by a vinyl skin.
Guill Tool also redesigned its 700 Series, an adjustable center crosshead die that holds close-tolerance walls for specialized applications such as electronic, medical tubing and wire and cable.
Tel. (401) 828-7600, fax (401) 823-5310, e-mail [email protected] .com.
Extrusion Dies boasts shape of contour die
Flat die maker Extrusion Dies Industries LLC of Chippewa Falls, Wis., said its contour die eliminates the trade-off between gauge uniformity and streamlined melt flow, thanks to its tapered, ``sculpted'' shape instead of the standard blocklike configuration.
EDI added extra die-body thickness where the pressure is greatest from resin coming out of the the manifold. The die is thinner where there is less force, and it is smaller and tapered at both ends.
The shape gives uniform die-body deflection across the width, but avoids the sacrifice of melt-flow streamlining with earlier ``constant-deflection'' dies, said John Ulcej, EDI's executive vice president of engineering and technology. Benefits include rapid adjustments to the gauge profiling system, low polymer degradation, fast purges for color or product changes and low scrap levels. To develop the new flat die, EDI used three-dimensional engineering software and a five-axis machining center.
Also new from EDI is the UltraLip, a scraper that traverses the width of a flat film, sheet or extrusion coating die in less than a minute to scrape buildup from the lips. Two scraping assemblies for the upper and lower lip faces move in unison along threaded drive screws. The screws can be operated from either side of the die by using a hand crank, avoiding possible burns to workers from reaching across the line to clean the die face.
A new motorized system from EDI, called UltraSplit, makes it unnecessary to take a flat die offline for color changes, cleaning or maintenance. Framing the die, the device splits it at the push of a button and orients the die bodies to give access to operators.
Tel. (715) 726-1201, fax (715) 726-2205, e-mail [email protected] extrusion dies.com.
Kaeser introduces screw compressor
Kaeser Compressors Inc. is providing a new direct-drive rotary screw compressor.
The compressor features Kaeser's Sigma Profile air end, the patent-pending Sigma Control and one-to-one drive technology.
The company in Fredericksburg, Va., also is providing the Secotec series of cycling dryers. By cycling, the unit operates the refrigerant compressor when needed, giving maximum efficiency.
Tel. (800) 777-7873, fax (540) 898-5520.
Firm gives pros of laser welding plastic
Laserquipment AG of Erlangen, Ky., is offering laser welding equipment for plastics.
The benefits of laser welding include increased quality, less melt blowout and no debris. Cycle time also is shorter.
Laserquipment offers a compact welding machine called the QS, for its quasi-simultaneous laser technology, designed for welding two-dimensional contours. The K series can create precise seams even on complex, three-dimensional shapes.
The company's U.S. office is in Wilsonville, Ore.
Tel. (503) 454-4233, fax (503) 682-7151, e-mail [email protected] .com.
Optical Gaging touts SmartScope, Cobra
The SmartScope Quest 250 from Optical Gaging Products Inc. is a benchtop video instrument for measuring metrology.
It uses a patented TeleStar zoom optics to give a high-quality image.
SmartScope Quest 250 integrates data from two, three or more sensors to characterize a part completely, for example, touch probes and laser for measuring surface coordinates and contours and scanning probes to check contoured surfaces.
Another new product, the Cobra 3D laser scanner, moves an integral diode laser source, imaging optics and a sensitive detector to scan surfaces in a series of linear profiles.
Tel. (585) 544-0450, fax (585) 338-7370, e-mail [email protected]
Melt Design offers hot-runner system
Melt Design Inc. has a new valve gate hot-runner system, featuring an adjustable valve pin design for easy access and maintenance.
MDI's valve gate systems are assembled at the factory before shipment. St. Charles, Ill.-based MDI makes all electrical, pneumatic and water connections, and heats the system to operating temperature to make sure it functions correctly.
The valve gate design requires only a screwdriver and two Allen wrenches to access the valve cylinders and adjust the pins.
Tel. (630) 443-4000, fax (630) 443-4140, e-mail [email protected]
Markem introduces 4000 Series marker
Markem Corp. of Keene, N.H., said its Model 3010CR direct laser marking system, dubbed CodeRunner, is small, flexible and economically priced.
The machine comes with Markem's Windows-based LaserSmith 3000 software. It has a mean time between failure of more than 15,000 hours, according to Markem.
The company also introduced the 4000 Series drop-on-demand white ink-jet marker. The machine uses drop-spread characteristics that give excellent line definition, and it prints directly from an electronic file.
Tel. (603) 352-1130, fax (603) 357-1835.
Management system for use with PDA
DTR Software International introduced Version 9 of The Manufacturing Manager, an enterprise resource planning system that ties together plastics manufacturing, distribution and financial management.
TMM v.9 allows processors to incorporate a hand-held personal digital assistant for warehouse management. Processors also gain full control over inventory by tying multiple units of measure to each item. It automatically calculates conversion quantities and relieves inventory in the base unit of measure.
A new feature is Insight, which allows managers to identify supply-chain bottlenecks quickly.
Production scheduling allows processors to access information on jobs at all levels on a single screen.
A customer relationship management function provides processors with seamless sharing of data throughout the organization, from the shop floor to customer service.
DTR, of Jacksonville, Fla., also introduced the Bag and Film Quoter, which analyzes processing costs of blown film extrusion, slitting, printing and other operations with ratios of raw material blends and bag dimensions, to come up with a quote.
Tel. (904) 281-1118, fax (904) 281-1112.
Briefly ...
* Alliance Gas Systems Inc. of Chesterfield, Mich., has received a U.S. patent for its water-assisted injection process, called Hydrojection. ... Milacron Inc. has named Industrial Tech of St. Francis, Minn., to sell injection presses under the Ferromatik Milacron North America nameplate.