British Plastics & Rubber articles from November 2006

British Plastics & Rubber archives from November 2006

Conferences & exhibitions.(Calendar)
November 1, 2006... Applications--automotive May 2-4 Plastics in Motion 2007. Conference in Rome, Italy, organised by Executive Conference Management. +1 734 737 0507 (fax +1 734-737-0508, email shar@executive-conference. com, web site...

Choice of colorant can reduce shrinkage and warpage.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... SHRINKAGE and warpage are all too familiar phenomena in moulded plastics components, costing companies many thousands of pounds in rejected mouldings, longer cycle times and lost productivity. Poor design, moulding conditions and material...

Design and processing for lowest warpage with Ixef materials.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... IXEF materials are highly glass fibre-filled (usually 50 or 60 per cent by weight) semiaromatic nylons. The high fluidity of the base polymer ensures good melt flow, enabling fairly thin mouldings (approximately 0.5 mm, and as low as 0.3 mm...

Machine manufacturers add value with special editions.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... As injection machine manufacturers seek to maintain volume they are devising special versions of their standard machines with added option packs at a bargain price to increase the perceived value relative to the machine cost. First in the...

More sizes and options from Arburq.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... A LONGSIDE its new 500 tonne 920S machine (British Plastics & Rubber, July/August 2006) Arburg has added a new insert moulding machine and a larger Universal machine. The new 275 V is a 25 tonne vertical machine with a C-frame clamp giving...

SMS sells Battenfeld injection and hires former MPM chairman.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... The Battenfeld injection moulding machine business is being sold to German capital investment company Adcuram, which bought the Kautex blow moulding machinery business from SIG in 2004. Over the past year Battenfeld, one of the oldest names...

Faster injection for micro mouldings.
November 1, 2006... A new drive system is used on the injection unit of the Battenfeld Microsystem 50. The company says the newly developed 'electronic cam disc' drive triples the dynamics of the Microsystem 50's injection unit giving substantially improved...

Dassett injection machine support passes to Renmar.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... SUPPORT for MIR machines which moved to Dassett Process Engineering briefly after MIR closed its British office earlier this year has now passed to Renmar Machinery Sales following Dassett's move into administration. Renmar is an affiliate...

Negri Bossi builds twin shot electric.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... Negri Bossi has launched its first all-electric twin shot machine, a 210 tonne model equipped with a 720 horizontal injection unit (screw diameter 45 mm) and a 180 (28 mm screw) vertical injection unit. The company has built more than 1,000...

More compact machines and new controls from Battenfeld.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... THE compact HM 400 short-footprint two-platen machine from Battenfeld has been joined by 320 and 500 tonne versions to complete the machine series. Battenfeld says these are the shortest horizontal injection moulding machines currently on the...

Chinese all-electric to arrive next year .(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... INCREASED power efficiency is promised from additions to the Haitian series sold by Premier Moulding Machinery. The J5 series of hydraulic machines to be launched in the new year will be up to 40 per cent more power efficient and up to 9...

Meiki moves to toggle lock for all-electrics.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... MEIKI has taken a new look at all-electric machines and is introducing a range of direct drive toggle locking machines. Meiki hasn't built toggle lock machines since 1942, and when, six years ago, it added an all-electric series it hung on to...

Retrofit motor control can pay back in less than a year.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... ENERGY saving equipment for the control of injection moulding machines offering a return on investment of less than a year has been developed by Sandretto UK. The company is supplying it for retrofitting to any make of injection moulding...

Antennae moulded into PC glazing.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... Antenna systems can now be moulded into PC automotive glazing. Exatec and Ficosa Advanced Antenna Systems have demonstrated the integration of Fractal antenna designs with a high degree of miniaturisation to give better reception than...

MuCell is key to lightweight thin wall packaging.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... A THIN WALL packaging process combining MuCell microcellular foaming with extra thin in-mould applied labels is set to 'turn thin-wall packaging on its head' according to Autobar Packaging Group. The company calls the technology Super...

Wood compound is moulded for packaging.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... Wood/plastic composites have a future, we are told, in wood look-alike products such as furniture and building industry components. But Rexam has taken a different tack and is using it for cosmetic packaging. It is making a powder compact...

Cavity pressure measurement for injection moulding.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... Mould cavity pressure is generally recognized to be a meaningful indicator of the stability of the injection moulding process. A system measuring the cavity pressure can predict the resultant quality of a moulded plastic part, can be used to...

Thermal deflashing of plastic components with infra-red: conventional deflashing methods are almost exclusively manual and involve the use of special knives or gas flames. Ian Bartley of Heraeus Noblelight describes how infra-red heating may be used to provide a contact-free solution.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... NON-contact infra-red heating is already well-established in the plastics processing sector for the softening and forming of plastics and in other processes such as gluing and heat sealing. It offers particular advantages over other, more...

Flow line production of electric machines planned by Engel.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... FASTER production and cheaper machines are the goal at Engel, with electric injection machines and dedicated packaging machines in the front line. Electric machines have up to now accounted for about 10 per cent of Engel's sales, but this...

Get the whole picture when monitoring production.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... PRODUCTION monitoring without process data only tells part of the story, according to Priamus System Technologies. Without process data, production data lacks details of product quality caused by changing mould or melt temperature. Not...

Hydraulic unscrewing gives precision for internal thread.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... USE of an EXAflow hydraulic unscrewing device supplied by DMS-Diemould enabled RA Labone & Co to overcome difficulty in moulding a component with a long, fine pitched internal thread. The device is the first to be used in the UK. The...

Pneumatic valve gate.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... CHIEFLY intended for single cavity hot runner moulds, the new AccuLine in-line pneumatic valve gate from Mold-Masters can be used for production or the evaluation of flow characteristics in prototype moulds. Valve pin anti rotation is optional....

Nozzles send melt round the bend.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... Offset versions of the Heitec Flat-Line hot runner nozzle are being sold by DMS for use in difficult-to-access off-centre gate locations. They allow a maximum offset of 30 mm and a minimum pitch of 13 mm. The nozzles would be used where...

Hot bushes for direct feed.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... A NEW range of hot bushes for direct feed applications has been launched by Fast Heat and is available in a wide choice of tip styles. Heaters and thermocouples can be replaced easily. The new PSB bushes are suitable for control by Fast Heat's...

Husky adds more hot runner components.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... HOT runner components for stack moulds, closure tooling and small component multi-cavity tools have been introduced by Husky. A new back-to-back valve gate system for stack moulds known as the B2B VG is intended for thin wall moulding and...

Machine suppliers increase E European support.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... TWO major injection moulding machine companies have opened new premises to give further support in Eastern Europe. Husky Injection Molding Systems has opened a sales office in Vienna which will serve as a gateway to Central and Eastern...

Moulds need no further machining for insulating plates.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... HASCO now makes its thermal insulation mould clamping plates as a sandwich, with the insulating sheet between two steel plates bonded by a special adhesive. K101 plates are made in sizes from 196 x 196 to 396 x 496 mm in two qualities of...

Training for free--but hurry, places are limited.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... Free-of-charge training programs are being run by Distrupol and Engel over the next 10 months. They will be held at Engel's Warwick base as part of its Engel Moulders Group operation and are open to anyone, regardless of whether they are...

Wittmann adds the equipment for turn-key IML.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... To improve its position in in-mould labelling technology Wittmann has bought French mould maker Regad, reasoning that by coupling mould design with good labels and the automation, it can better devise turn-key IML projects. Wittmann has...

Large robots designed for production data networking.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... To meet demands for large take out robots with networked production monitoring, Yushin has introduced the RA/RAII-a series servo driven traverse types with Internet and LAN capabilities. The RAII-[alpha]-1800 is for moulding machines between...

New side entry robot, controller and enhanced axes.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... SPACE-SAVING side entry robot has been added to the Wittmann series, and existing robots have a new controller and an improved AC servo wrist axis. The new W7x5 horizontal robot combines the benefits of rotational horizontal axes with a...

Sprue picker offers fast pay-back.(INJECTION MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... EASTERN Plastics Machinery is selling a new sprue-picker from Matsui, and has recently installed four at Molex. The E-300 Eco Robot has electric servo drive through a belt for the main movement. The belt drives a pulley which in turn...

Developmental EPDM for low temperature use.(ENGINEERING MATERIALS)
November 1, 2006... NEW developmental grade of hydrocarbon rubber from Dow Chemical addresses the market need for an EPDM that delivers good performance in low-temperature applications. Nordel MG grade NDR 46100.00 was produced by using Dow's Insite...

Delrin is hotter, less smelly and you can find it in your food.(ENGINEERING MATERIALS)
November 1, 2006... THE future development of DuPont's Delrin acetal homopolymer was outlined by the material's Europe, Middle-East and Africa Director Mark Williams at a recent conference in Germany. The most important end-user industry for Delrin is the...

Transparent PEBA elastomer extends design options.(ENGINEERING MATERIALS)
November 1, 2006... A NEW transparent elastomer from Degussa is said to offer new options for designers. The material is a polyether block amide and joins the company's Vestamid E product line. Vestamid E58-$4 is composed of polyamide 12 and polyether segments,...

New PC blend for car instrument panels.(ENGINEERING MATERIALS)
November 1, 2006... A NEW polycarbonate blend from Bayer MaterialScience has been formulated for good adhesion to polyurethane foams in automotive instrument panels. The bond strength of Bayblend DP T88 Plus to the fast-reacting polyurethane foam systems used for...

Viton now not just in black.(ENGINEERING MATERIALS)
November 1, 2006... Colour-coded Viton fluoroelastomer parts in a range of colours including translucent are now available from Advanced Polymers. Traditionally Viton has been supplied in black, but Adpol in now producing coloured custom extrusions and...

Nylon bonds to EPDM.(ENGINEERING MATERIALS)
November 1, 2006... A PROCESS for making hard-soft components combining nylon and EPDM without an adhesion promoter has been unveiled by Degussa. It says that previously nylons could only be moulded together with x-NBR, HNBR, FKM and AEM rubbers. But now its...

High flow nylon with 50 per cent GF.(ENGINEERING MATERIALS)
November 1, 2006... A NEW high-flow grade of Zytel HTN high-temperature nylon has been added to DuPont Engineering Polymers' portfolio. Zytel HTN53G50LRHF has a 20 per cent higher flow than comparable grades, and contains 50 per cent glass fibre reinforcement. ...

New TPU grades formulated for laser marking.(ENGINEERING MATERIALS)
November 1, 2006... BAYER MaterialScience has expanded its Desmopan range of thermoplastic polyurethanes with the addition of laser-marking grades. The composition of the new TPU grades was developed in partnership with DSM, and was based on the customised Micabs...

Halogen-free flame retardant PBT compounds.(ENGINEERING MATERIALS)
November 1, 2006... HALOGEN-free alternatives have been added to PolyOne's Bergadur flame retardant polybutylene terephthalate range. The new materials can be identified by a 'UF' suffix in the grade number. The move comes in response to market demands arising...

High flow transparent PP for food containers.(PACKAGING MATERIALS)
November 1, 2006... A HIGH-FLOW polypropylene random copolymer has been developed by Total Petrochemicals specifically for injection moulding transparent containers. The new PPR 12232 grade has a melt flow index of 80 g/10 min, and is food compatible and odour...

TPE alloys have high barrier performance.(PACKAGING MATERIALS)
November 1, 2006... AMERICAN TPE producer GLS Corporation has developed a TPE alloy with high barrier properties with potential in food and beverage packaging applications such as beverage closures, flexible food packaging films, and other storage containers....

Highly transparent SBS to compete with polyester.(PACKAGING MATERIALS)
November 1, 2006... BASF has developed a highly transparent grade of its Styrolux styrene-butadiene block copolymer. The new Styrolux 3G46 material combines toughness with transparency and is particularly suitable for packaging. It can be extruded, thermoformed...

New PET cuts AA levels by 25 per cent.(PACKAGING MATERIALS)
November 1, 2006... A new generation of PET bringing enhanced bottle clarity, product purity, production and supply chain efficiencies and 'significant environmental benefits' has been developed by Eastman Chemical using its IntegRex technology. This is the...

Additive gives a product a hidden signature.(ADDITIVES)
November 1, 2006... AN additive that provides a signature trace to discourage counterfeiting has been introduced by Addmaster. Verimaster can be applied to all types of hosts including, paper, plastic, fibres, adhesives, paint, ink and lacquer. Once embedded...

Colour and additive masterbatch for biodegradables.(ADDITIVES)
November 1, 2006... POLYONE has extended its range of masterbatch products for use with starch blend d-polymers, PLA, co-polyesters and other biodegradable polymers. The range now includes OnColor Bio transparent and opaque colour masterbatches, and OnCap Bio...

Nucleating agent prevents warping with fast crystallisation.(ADDITIVES)
November 1, 2006... A PROCESS AID developed by Begg and Co is said to improve productivity across a range of converting processes using polyolefins. Mould Perfect increases the crystallisation rate to: * decrease cycle times; * reduce rejects; *...

Monomeric HALS approved for food contact plastics.(ADDITIVES)
November 1, 2006... A NEW monomeric hindered amine light stabiliser from BASF has become the first of this type to be approved by the FDA for use in plastics that come into contact with foodstuffs. Uvinul 4050 H is approved for use in polystyrene, styrene...

New effects from Clariant tap into consumer trends.(COLOUR MANAGEMENT)
November 1, 2006... ACCORDING to ColorForward--the new colour-trends initiative from Clariant Masterbatches--reflective light, see-through designs, and tactile experiences are playing an increasingly important part both in mass-market and luxury consumer...

Colour Vision adds 36 colours for Gabriel Chemie.(COLOUR MANAGEMENT)
November 1, 2006... THIRTY SIX colours have been added to the Gabriel Chemie masterbatch range in three groups identified under its Colour Vision 2007/2008 concept. The company says that studies into consumer behaviour have shown an increasing return to...

New shades of white for electronics.(COLOUR MANAGEMENT)
November 1, 2006... BASF's design factory has responded to market trends by developing new shades of white specifically for manufacturers of electronic devices. The familiar PAL colour chart only contains five shades of white but the design factory now offers 12...

UK colour measurement offices combine.(COLOUR MANAGEMENT)
November 1, 2006... THE GretagMacbeth UK sales office at Preston Brook in Cheshire has been closed as part of the takeover by X-Rite. Sales of the company's colour measurement equipment have been transferred to the X-Rite UK sales office at Poynton, also in...

Bayer makes the case for colour.(COLOUR MANAGEMENT)
November 1, 2006... THE Bayer MaterialScience Color Competence Center in Filago, Italy, has designed a special sample case to help its field service people present Fantasia. This is the name given to the company's services and technologies for dyeing and coating...

New German machine puts Porcas back into blow moulding.(BLOW MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... A NEW range of blow moulding machines from Germany has gone on sale in the UK. The Extraplast machines are built at the former Fischer plant in Troisdorf. The company has for some time supplied spare parts and service for machines supplied by...

Melt accumulator shows advantages over reciprocating screw.(BLOW MOULDING)
November 1, 2006... GRAHAM Engineering has improved its melt accumulator 'shooting pot' type extrusion blow moulding machines with a new SPM model to produce containers up to 1 gallon/4 litres capacity in HDPE. Shot capacity is 1.2, 2 or 3 kg, irrespective of...

New anodising technologies revolutionise aluminium tooling.(TOOLING)
November 1, 2006... PROJECT ALAMO, a two-year EU-funded research programme co-ordinated by Rapra Technology, is drawing to a close with some encouraging results. The project studied the use of innovative anodised aluminium for injection moulding and rotational...

High hardness mould steel needs no heat treatment.(TOOLING)
November 1, 2006... HASCO now offers Toolox 33 and 44 tool steel grades as alternatives to conventional steel materials. Manufactured by Swedish steel producer SSAB, Toolox 33 is a stress-free pre-hardened tempered tool steel with high toughness, 1,040...

Rubber-metal bonding system for tough conditions.(FINISHING)
November 1, 2006... A COVER-COAT rubber bonding system introduced by Chemical Innovations is intended to meet demands for where rubber-to-metal bonded components must survive higher temperatures and longer exposure to chemicals and fuels. Cilbond 82 can bond...

Acrylic adhesive bonds large surface areas.(FINISHING)
November 1, 2006... NEW Penloc VT acrylic adhesive produced by Eurobond Adhesives bonds most plastics, composites, metals and ceramics in any combination and cures to handling strength in 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the ambient temperature. Curing to working...

Two sided foiling for crates and boxes.(FINISHING)
November 1, 2006... The S4100 HY hot foil machine is now available from PBE Marking Systems for high speed foiling of bins, crates and boxes. It has a direct-acting hydraulic cylinder to overcome variations in material thickness with fine adjustment from 100 to...

Pelletiser aims to beat contamination and downtime.(COMPOUNDING)
November 1, 2006... MORE detail has been given about the design of the new Reduction Engineering 800 Series strand pelletiser (British Plastics & Rubber, June 2006). The machine, built by the company that built Conair's pelletisers and which has now bought the...

Twin-screw compounder has replaceable barrel liners.(COMPOUNDING)
November 1, 2006... A NEW twin-screw laboratory compounder from Thermo Electron has replaceable barrel liners that can be manufactured from special materials to withstand aggressive applications. The PRISM TSE 24 MC compounder is intended for small-scale...

Cryogenic plant to supply powdered plastics.(COMPOUNDING)
November 1, 2006... A GERMAN compounder is claiming to be the only company in Europe offering fine grinding and compounding from a single source. Geba Kunststofftechnik has installed two cryogenic fine grinding units with an overall annual capacity of 2,500 tonnes...

Tighter control than typical auto-tune.(TEMPERATURE CONTROL)
November 1, 2006... THE Tru-Tune adaptive control algorithm now used in Watlow SD PID temperature controllers provides tighter control and finer thermal loop tuning than typical auto tune, says the company. Control is stable through changes in set point and...

Uprated control for budget-priced TCUs.(TEMPERATURE CONTROL)
November 1, 2006... UPGRADES to Conair TC90/200 9 and 18 kW budget-priced water and oil temperature control units include three-term PID control on both heating and cooling circuits, autotuning, and RS485 communications via Euromap 17 to interface with...

Reverse flights improve homogeneity.(MATERIALS HANDLING)
November 1, 2006... THE new TSM Control Systems Opti-Mix batch blender has four removable hoppers with individual slide valves and a throughput range up to 200 kg/ hr. Reverse flight auger mixing is incorporated for good blend homogeneity. The remote colour...

Dosing calibration is simplified.(MATERIALS HANDLING)
November 1, 2006... CSC (Colortronic Smart Calibration) software has been incorporated into the Colortronic C150 control unit for volumetric dosing equipment to simplify calibration. The operator presses the calibration key, the disc rotates for one revolution and...

Granulators for bulky scrap.(RECLAMATION & RECYCLING)
November 1, 2006... THE new KX series granulators from Dreher are intended for the reclamation of large blow mouldings such as fuel tanks, L-ring drums and IBCs as well as purging lumps. A feature of the new series is their accessibility for cleaning. Unlike...

Improved access gives visible confirmation of clean-down.(RECLAMATION & RECYCLING)
November 1, 2006... THE new 'open-hearted' design is now used across Rapid's 300, 400 and 500 granulator range. The aim is to improve performance by simplifying access for rapid cleaning and maintenance to speed up production change-overs. Clear access to core...

Granulator blades.(RECLAMATION & RECYCLING)
November 1, 2006... KAMADUR granulator blades now available from Simplex-Turbulo are alternatives to OEM blades from many granulator manufacturers. They are made in different grades of alloy steels with the latest technology to ensure sharpness and wear...

Rubber reclaim process now at a commercial size.(RECLAMATION & RECYCLING)
November 1, 2006... A MECHANICAL process to recover scrap vulcanised rubber has become an industrial reality with a tie-up between the process's licensor, Watson Brown HSM, and 'the largest manufacturer of elastomer compounding machinery in the People's Republic...

The real value of reclaiming in-house scrap.(RECLAMATION & RECYCLING)
November 1, 2006... WHAT is the real value of recycling? According to Motan it could be a pay back on the cost of equipment within 10 weeks. Apart from obvious material cost savings and the possible reduction in material storage, there are other savings to be...

On-line tool to calculate granulator RoI.(RECLAMATION & RECYCLING)
November 1, 2006... To calculate the return on investment when buying a granulator Rapid has added a cost evaluation tool to its web site. By entering a few production parameters and granulator specifications, Rapid says the programme calculates granulator...

Carpet contractor sets up recycling plant.(RECLAMATION & RECYCLING)
November 1, 2006... HAVE you ever been to an exhibition and wondered what happens to all the carpet from the aisles and stands after the show? Well, around 12 million [m.sup.2] of carpet are dumped every year by the exhibitions and events industry, which puts a...

Plant-wide reclaim system keeps energy costs down.(RECLAMATION & RECYCLING)
November 1, 2006... A THERMOFORMING scrap recycling system installed at Huhtamaki UK by Health & Safety Engineering was conceived as a centralised system, but had to work with lines producing two grades of product, one of which was also produced in two colours....

Electrostatics keep materials apart.(RECLAMATION & RECYCLING)
November 1, 2006... IF PVC and PET are not kept apart when reclaiming bottle scrap even very low amounts of PVC can contaminate the PET and thereby prevent the use of the flakes for high-grade applications--such as for new PET bottles. But according to German...

Delleve aims for food-grade rPET.(RECLAMATION & RECYCLING)
November 1, 2006... Plastics recycler JFC Delleve is to install a PET hot wash facility at its St Helens plant in Lancashire and plans to produce food packaging-grade recycled PET. The equipment, from Sorema in Italy, is being installed this month at a cost of...

PET scrap-to-pellets keeps up the IV and saves energy.(RECLAMATION & RECYCLING)
November 1, 2006... FOR some years Erema has been using its Vacurema technology make products such as PET film, fibres and packing straps directly from reclaim with only one melting process. Now the company has added a system for making crystallised cylindrical...

Re-use film trim without the cost of granulating.(RECLAMATION & RECYCLING)
November 1, 2006... FILM edge trim and roll scrap does S not have to be re-granulated for use in a closed loop. Solutions 4 Plastic is now selling the asr system from Process Control which feeds reground film as fluff back to the extruder, cutting energy costs...

More demand for film/sheet reclaim.(RECLAMATION & RECYCLING)
November 1, 2006... DEMAND for complete turnkey systems for the handling of edge trim, film, sheet and other extruded scrap has greatly increased, says Herbold Meckeshem, which has developed dedicated equipment based on its large range of standard granulators and...

Erema chalks up improvements for film reclaim.(RECLAMATION & RECYCLING)
November 1, 2006... THE addition of calcium carbonate can overcome problems with ink residues when reclaiming printed film. Erema has been recommending this to its customers for some time, but has now got together with Omya to establish the optimum way of adding...

Black and white operation cuts cost of Spektrum sorter.(RECLAMATION & RECYCLING)
November 1, 2006... A LOWER-priced version of the Spektrum optical sorting machine has been introduced by S+S to separate light and dark materials such as dark rubber seals from lighter PVC window frames during recycling. The Spektrum BW is based on the...

Ring extruder drives second PET reclaim line.(RECLAMATION & RECYCLING)
November 1, 2006... The multi-screw Extricom extrusion system will be combined with the IV control process from Ohl Engineering in a second PET recycling plant for PKR in Beselich, Germany. Extricom will supply the whole extrusion line, from feeding of the...