Delta Polymer Extrusion Professional (Version 1) from Manufacturing Information Solutions, USA is the first software written to manage pipe, sheet or custom profile extrusion production. The software stores and controls an unlimited number of process settings (70 to 100 are typical), plus data on materials, tools, dies, engineers’ notes on job set-ups, production history and scheduling.
BBS Corp., USA has developed a new mixing screw tip and two-stage dynamic-mixing screw extension. The patented “Chopper” screw extension has two types of floating stator rings, each with eight or more serrated “chopping” zones that randomly divide the melt among multiple mixing/conveying channels as the screw turns. Within each channel, the melt is mixed by a gentle rolling action. The five-stage screw-and-barrel extension has a stator ring followed by a transition zone, then a second stator ring followed by a conveying zone and then the mixing tip, which has a fixed (rather than floating) serrated Chopper ring. Additional stator rings can be added to the dynamic mixing section. The Chopper screw extension will be presented for the first time in a paper at the SPE Polyolefins 2001 conference in Houston, USA next February.
Tredegar Film Products Corp., USA has purchased two film-related companies in Italy. Tredegar bought Adma srl and Promea Engineering srl. Adma makes films mainly used in personal-hygiene products and Promea makes machinery to produce hygienic films and laminates.
Macro Engineering & Technology Inc., Canada has designed a seven-layer die, believed to be the first commercial-scale die for blowing film with PVdC. The die is made to produce film with nylon, EVA, LLDPE, LDPE, PVdC and a tie layer. The feedblock is designed to encapsulate the corrosive PVdC with EVA and special melt channels in the die that keep the EVA coating intact around the PVdC layer. Macro devised channels that change shape from teardrop to round, then square and back to a teardrop again. A new insulating air-gap device thermally isolates the 520 F nylon melt from the rest of the structure, which is at 370 F. The nylon joins the other layers just 0,5 in. before the die lip.
Seminars in Atlanta, Georgia:
Introduction to Extrusion Technology
November 29-30, 2000
Extrusion Problems & Solutions
December 1, 2000
Seminars in Toronto, Ontario:
Introduction to Extrusion Technology
December 6-7, 2000
Extrusion Problems & Solutions
December 8, 2000
Allan L. Griff is an experienced extrusion consultant and educator, who also offers in-plant sessions. Also available is The Plastics Extrusion Operating Manual, a 64-page booklet which explains how an extruder works. For more details visit : www.griffex.com
Solvay, Belgium has signed a 50:50 - joint-venture contract with Dacarto SA in Brazil for the production of VC-compounds. “Dacarto Benvic” will have three production sites ( in Osasco, Sao Paulo und Camacari) and will employ approx. 400 people.
Uniplast Films Inc.,USA has expanded its blown polyester film capacity by 40 per cent. New dies, winders and air rings have been purchased for the Harrisville plant.
The Saturn DigiSizer TM uses a CCD (Charged-Couple Device) detector to measure an almost continuous diffraction pattern. The detector consists of more than 1,3 million detector elements. To achieve the best possible result each detector scans with variable exposure times and intensities.
Tokiwa Chemical Industry Co. Ltd., Japan has developed a new patented technology for making TPO weatherstrip seals for car-door windows utilizes an extruded coating with very low coefficient of friction and high durability. The technology has been licensed in the U.S. to DSM Thermoplastic Elastomers Inc., American Rubber Products and Hahn Elastomer Corp. Tokiwa’s approach uses a 1- to 1.5-in. satellite extruder to apply a 20-40 micron coating of PTFE-filled HMW-HDPE over the weather stripping. The coating is Lubmer TM-80, made by Mitsui Chemicals in Japan.
The new Extrusion Master 3 machine control from Eurotherm Controls in Leesburg, USA is said to reduce installation costs by 20-50 per cent. Savings with the EM 3 come from new “Process Building Blocks” containing PLCs, so they distribute data processing. These I/O blocks can be directly wired and mounted at various points on the extrusion line, so they require no separate control cabinet or terminal strips.