Kuka offers package for injection molding
Kuka Robotics Corp. is offering an injection molding function package for its parts-removal robots that allows customers to integrate robots into any injection press with clamping forces of 100-6,000 tons, with less time for installation and engineering.
Available for all Kuka robots, the package is optimized for the line of Kuka KS, shelf-mounted injection molding robots. The package includes an SPI interface between the press and robot, a festo device net valve stack with vacuum generators, a complete energy supply and pneumatic tubing from the base of the robot to the sixth-axis faceplate.
End-of-arm tooling can be connected with no additional accessories.
Kuka is near Mount Clemens, Mich., in Clinton Township.
Tel. 586-569-2082, fax 866-329-5852.
Krones AG introduces medium-size machine
Krones AG has introduced a smaller stretch blow molding machine to make PET bottles, the Contiform 530M. The ``m'' stands for medium-size.
The machine can make bottles as large as 1½ liters. To produce that bottle size, Krones now offers an option for building 30 cavities on the mechanical platform of a standard blow molding machine that usually is designed for 24 molds of up to 3 liters each.
The 530M has an output per blow molding station of up to 1,800 bottles an hour, or 54,000 containers for the entire machine.
Krones is based in Neutraubling, Germany. Its U.S. headquarters, Krones Inc., is in Franklin. Wis.
Tel. 414-409-4000, fax 414-409-4100, e-mail [email protected]
Vecoplan's XL line shreds larger items
Vecoplan LLC of High Point, N.C., said its XL line of shredders is designed for large, bulky items such as pallets, bales of plastic and lightweight bags of waste, thanks to a larger rotor diameter and taller feed ram.
The XL package is available on its RG32, RG42 and RG62 U models.
The screen classifies chip and particle size. The larger circumference also increases the number of cutting inserts.
In other news, Vecoplan said its SpeedMaster control system regulates cutting rotor drives of shredders, greatly improving efficiency. Features include a standard, asynchronous motor and a variable frequency drive and digital encoder. The SpeedMaster is available exclusively on its single- and twin-shaft shredder lines.
Tel. 336-861-6070, fax 336-861-4329, e-mail [email protected]
New blown film line driven without gears
Macchi SpA showed what it called the world's first fully gearless-driven coextrusion blown film line earlier this year at Plast'06 in Milan, Italy.
The statistics were impressive for a trade-show film tower: 46 feet high, running 1,980 pounds of low density polyethylene an hour into a 96-inch-wide web. Macchi tied a Siemens torque motor into the gearless coexFlex platforms.
Five drives ran the BoPlus Axial dual winder at the end of the line.
Macchi is based in Veregono Inferiore, Italy. Macchi North America Corp. is in Guelph, Ontario.
Tel. 519-823-9400, fax 519-823-9926.
Glass-coated rolls perform well in tests
Empire Treater Rolls of Fishers, N.Y., said tests at ExxonMobil Chemical Co.'s films facility in Macedon, N.Y., determined that Empire's design of steel treater roll coated with glass uses less power than ceramic-coated rolls.
The rolls are used to surface-treat plastic films and paper before converters print, coat or laminate the film for packaging. The tests in Macedon covered oriented polypropylene films.
The tests showed desired treatment levels could be achieved by running the glassed steel roll near its minimum power level, while ceramic rolls had to be operated at near-maximum power.
Empire said the glassed steel rolls cut annual power use 27 percent and reduced material costs .
Tel. 585-924-2020, e-mail bmiko [email protected]