REP Corp. wants to improve stripping.
REP is talking about is its technology for automatic stripping of EPDM pipe seals, of any seal size.
When performed manually, the stripping process is often very difficult, impacting productivity, according to REP, of Bartlett, Ill. “The challenge is to do it quickly without any heat loss and without production stoppages, due to overlapping seal,” REP said in a news release.
The industry today generally uses several solutions, including molding with two sets of rotating core bars, and these require a very large press-opening stroke to perform the rotation of the core bars outside the press, and/or front and rear stripping units that need a lot of space what REP called “very high capital costs.”
REP's technology is based on conveyor belts equipped with rotating belts, allowing the individual stripping of the seals. The spacing between the bottom and top belts can be adjusted easily, thanks to a mechanical stopper system, and that makes it possible to switch over from one seal type to another, according to the company. The speed of rotating of the top and bottom belts also can be adjusted independently.
The spacing can be easily adjusted between the top and bottom belts, because of a mechanical stopper system. Also, the rotation speeds of the top and bottom belts can be adjusted independently.
REP officials detailed a case study that reached a stripping time of EPDA pipe seal of about 40 seconds, on an REP V69Y50 with a clamping force of 400 tons. The cell includes a kit specially designed for automatic stripping, a vacuum system, and hydraulic top and bottom ejectors. Ancillary heating is provided from heating elements inside the cores, to maintain the core temperature during the stripping process.
Tooling consists of a 112-cavity mold with two cores and a two-nozzle cold runner block, for a seal part with a nominal diameter of 110 millimeters. For a part with a nominal diameter of 50 mm, the company uses a 208-cavity mold (four cores) and a four-nozzle cold runner block.
After the mold opens, the ejectors move out to life the frame-supported cores. The cores move to the rear of the press, using electrical movement, and simultaneously the rotation of the two belts allow for the stripping of the pipe seals. The runners are automatically stripped and separated from the parts during the core bar translation. Runners are recovered in a receptacle inside the cage. The molded parts are recovered at the discharge end of the cage extension.
When the cores move inside the press, a laser detection unit gets activated to guarantee that no seal sticks in the cores.
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