In Process 16931

COMPOUNDER ADDS EXTRUSION LINE

Engineering plastics compounder Oxford Polymers (New Britain, CT) recently upped annual capacity to 40 million lb by adding a 69-mm Davis-Standard twin-screw compounding system. Oxford?s fourth Davis-Standard extrusion line, the latest addition is dedicated to nylon and polycarbonate compounding. The machines are required to run a variety of fillers including glass, minerals, lubricants, colorants, flame retardants, impact modifiers, and carbon fiber, mixing them with materials as diverse as ABS, acetal, PET, PPO, and PEEK. The 100,000-sq-ft operation also offers lab capabilities and closed loop recycling. For more information on Oxford Polymers visit www.oxfordpolymers.com. For more information on Davis-Standard, go to www.davis-standard.com.

BARRIER SCREW LETS MOLDER CLEAR PROCESSING HURDLE

Faced with burn streaks and unmelted areas in thicker sections of a 30-inch diameter cooling fan for a truck, Beach Mold & Tool Inc. (New Albany, IN) adopted the MeltStar barrier screw from ServTek Div. of Milacron (Batavia, OH) to mix and melt the 160-oz shot of 35%-glass-filled nylon.

Installed on a 1000-ton Cincinnati Milacron Maxima dual-platen press, the MeltStar was called in to help deal with scrap rates that were approaching 10%. Milacron offered the MeltStar on a try-before-you-buy basis, since the molder was skeptical that it would solve its problems. However, after trimming scrap rates to less than 1%, as well as reducing screw recovery time by 15 seconds and lowering cycle times by 45% after some additional tool changes, Beach achieved outputs that would make up for the initial investment. Instead of featuring a compression section like most general-purpose screws, the MeltStar uses a two-channel barrier section to separate solids and unmelted resin so that solid pellets don?t get lost in the melt stream. For more information visit www.servtek.com.

STRETCH BLOWMOLDING MACHINE GAINS TRACTION

After being on the market for roughly two years, the Blomax Series III from SIG Corpoplast (Hamburg, Germany) achieved its 100th sale thanks to Britvic Soft Drinks Ltd. (Norwich, U.K.). SIG points to the machine?s stability under load during constant operation, low energy consumption, low compressed-air requirements, and easy maintenance as reasons for the Blomax?s popularity.

Selling 1.1 billion liters of soft drinks annually in more than 400 flavors, Britvic stretch blowmolds PET bottles to serve the 10 billion liters/year European market. The company has four SIG Blomax?s, including two with 16 blow stations. To learn more visit www.sigcorpoplast.com.

DATE MARKING VIA ROBOT

Instead of using date wheels or other inmold dating technology, Vanguard Plastics installed a Wittmann Automation beam-mounted pin market option on its robots. The system provides date coding and other marking as required on molded parts.

Mounted by a bracket to the robot?s main beam, the pin marker communicates directly with the robot that controls the production cell. Applying end-of-arm-tooling, the parts are held in place as the robot moves each component into position for individual marking.

Marking preferences can be selected and programmed as required, and they are automatically updated. By eliminating operator interference and making the changes automatically, molders can be assured that the parts will have the proper date. By integrating through the robot control, changes and updates to the program can be made easily.

In the case of Vanguard, multiple cavities required several characters per part to be marked. The system paid for itself in four months, according to Vanguard, by eliminating a manual marking procedure. Wittmann supplied training and programming, and is now slated to install a second system.

For more information, contact Wittmann at (860) 496-9603 or visit www.wittmann-ct.com.

BARRIER SHEET MARKET DEMANDS PROMPT MACHINE PURCHASE

Winpak Ltd. (Winnipeg, MB) has ordered a third barrier coextrusion line from PTi (Aurora, IL) to respond to customer demand for barrier sheet products. The line produces complex asymmetric and symmetric coextruded structures such as modified atmospheric packaging, controlled atmospheric packaging, extended-shelf-life items, and retort packaging.

Winpak manufacturers machines and materials for perishable food, beverage, dairy product, and pharmaceutical packaging markets. PTi says it has shipped 10 such systems over the course of the last two years and is investigating techniques for foaming specific layers within barrier structures. For more information contact PTi at (630) 585-5800 or visit www.ptiextruders.com.