Demag provides VDU as retrofit controller
Demag Plastics Group has announced a controller retrofit package — called Van Dorn Universal, or VDU — to support its ``legacy'' injection molding machines outfitted with Pathfinder, Barber-Colman and Allen-Bradley controllers.
This is one huge legacy. Aftermarket sales Vice President John Martich said that going back 15 years, Van Dorn's existing fleet of presses is about 15,500 machines.
DPG ended U.S. manufacturing of injection presses last year. The Strongsville facility remains open to handle U.S. sales and service.
DPG's aftermarket sales team will change out the existing controller and install the new one, including the operator terminal with a 15-inch, high-resolution screen. The company will provide machine startup and training.
VDU can be retrofitted on these machine lines: HT, HP, HPE/HPR, HPS, Classic and Newbury vertical presses. Officials launched a promotional campaign for VDU in September, contacting customers running the legacy machines that were made in Strongsville.
The layout and ``feel'' of the VDU is based on the old Van Dorn Pathfinder controller. ``But it's more than just an upgraded Pathfinder control,'' Martich said in a Sept. 3 interview in Strongsville.
Martich said VDU is interchangeable with DPG's modern controllers used today, the NC4 and NC5. With a VDU upgrade, molders will have a guaranteed supply of spare parts in the future, he added.
Tel. 440-876-8960, fax 440-238-4982, e-mail [email protected]
Sumitomo all-electric
offers speed, 2 shots
Sumitomo Plastics Machinery America LLC introduced a high-speed double-shot series of all-electric injection presses, called SEHS-CI.
The two-shot machines come in two clamping-force sizes, 253 tons and 308 tons. The direct-drive presses combine Sumitomo's all-electric motor technology, found on its high-speed SE-HS series, with two injection units and a rotating mold plate. The mold rotates 180 degrees in 0.8 second, which Sumitomo said is twice as fast as the typical rotation.
Mold open and close speeds also are fast, at 51.2 inches per second. Another feature reduces cooling times through an optional four-circuit temperature control piping. Wide mold spacing accommodates both single- and two-shot molds.
SEHS-CI machines are available with a choice of injection units, screw diameters and screw types for shot sizes from 2.9-10.7 ounces.
The double center press platen design is used on the SE-HS and SE-HD machines. That design ensures superior balance of pressure throughout the central surface area of the double-shot mold. It reduces platen deflection and gives better protection of mold and core pins.
The platen design also can reduce clamping force requirements by 20-30 percent. When combined with wide mold spacing, that can allow molds be run on smaller machines.
The two-shot presses come with Sumitomo's N-9 controller.
Sumitomo America is based in Norcross, Ga.
Tel. 770-447-5430, fax 770-441-9168.
Italian NPM press
molding Myto chair
Italian injection press maker Plastic Metal SpA, known as NPM, is playing a key role in the high-profile Myto cantilever plastic chair.
Italian molder Vivi srl of Arzignano, is molding the Myto chairs on NPM's 900-ton Unyka toggle machine, according to Plastic Metal, based in Gambellara, Italy.
At last year's K show in Dusseldorf, BASF AG molded scale models of the groundbreaking Myto cantilever plastic chair on NPM's all-electric Elettryka press with 85 tons of clamping force. BASF handed out the small chairs to introduce a high-speed version of its Ultradur polybutylene terephthalate resin.
Myto is the first cantilever chair to rely solely on the plastic — past cantilever chairs relied on a tubular steel structure. The company that designed the cantilever chair is also Italian, Plank Collezioni srl. The Myto chair is displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Plastic Metal fabricates all mechanical components in Gambellara, then assembles the NPM presses. The family-owned firm also runs a separate business, Fratelli Virginio srl, that makes conveyors, hopper loaders, dryers, mixers and granulators.
NPM makes about 250 injection presses a year, in clamping forces from 35-3,850 tons, said Robert Knaster, vice president of Plastic Metal USA in Oyster Bay, N.Y.
Tel. 914-582-1848, e-mail [email protected]