Grinder helps lens lab handle plastic strings

Essilor Laboratories of America Inc./Omega Optical Laboratory in Dallas used a Taskmaster TM8500 inline grinder from Franklin Miller Inc. to handle stringy waste material produced while machining polycarbonate blanks into prescription lenses.

The strings would build up around the separation auger, locking it up, then the drive belt would burn off and the system would shut down, the company said. The Taskmaster grinder chews up the strings into small pieces that pass easily through the catch basin and transfer pumps.

“We spend only 30 minutes a day cleaning out the basket,” said Brent Teichman, senior maintenance manager.

The Taskmaster TM8500 is a twin-shaft grinder that employs two counter-rotating cutter stacks that intermesh at close clearance to shred solids into fine bits.

Franklin Miller is based in Livingston, N.J.

Tel. 800-932-0599 or 973-535-9200, fax 973-535-6269, email [email protected].