Strictly-Extrusion

Guill Tool announces new literature to assist OEMS/medical tubing and specialized wire manufacturers to select Guill’s advanced extrusion tooling that enables thin walled designs and the highest quality low volume manufacturing.
“The Series 800 and 600 are ideal for those medical/OEM tubing and wire manufacturers that require low volume with extremely tight tolerances and unmatched accuracy — walls as thin as .0002,” states William Conley, Guill Tool Extrusion sales manager. He continued, “Guill customers span the gamut from the largest more complex to the smallest, most delicate, sensitive shapes. Our Series 800 and 600 meet these as well as a multitude of diverse and unique extrusion tooling product requirements.”
The Series 800 joins the Series 600 to offer users a multitude of benefits including removable, easy to clean heads that save downtime and labor. These crossheads also incorporate Guill’s Split Balanced flow design. This design allows the flexibility of fixed center or adjustable center operation. Both Series are available in single, co, and triple extrusion and is adjustable to almost any extruder layout. The multi-layer designs also have the option of running single co, or triple extrusion by simply changing one or two components. The quick-change-tooling means minimal downtime during production. Both series of crossheads, along with all Guill designs, include the patented Guill Flow Splitter. The Flow Splitter provides a reduced extrudate memory set, elimination of dead spots, and low material inventory.
The company also manufactures tips, dies and breaker plates using, as they say, state-of-the-art computerized CNC machining and EDM equipment.
Engineering services using the latest CAD systems are available for custom designing extrusion tooling products: crossheads, tips, clamps, flanges, air wipes, forming rolls, spiderless inline dies, dies, swing gates, breaker plates, special equipment and sizing dies.
Guill Tool has long been recognized as one of the leading established designers and manufacturers of custom extrusion tooling for types of applications including: wire, cable, fiber optics, medical tube, wood composites, automotive tube, plastic compounding, custom applications, rubber, profile, industrial pipe, hose & tube, blow molding, food and packaging.
The company also encourages and provides education and training for the extrusion industry with plastic and aluminum model heads, fully illustrated operating manuals for step-by-step assembly and disassembly, training videotapes, as well as classes on the care and cleaning of extrusion tooling.

With its new polycarbonate grade, “Makrolon Hygard”, Germany’s Makroform GmbH, a joint venture of Bayer, and Röhm, hopes to unlock a new market in security applications. Developed with armoured cars, banks or convenience stores or even prisons in mind, the product made of multiple layers of PC or PC/acrylic with bonding inter-layers, comes in six levels of protection ranging from containment-rated sheet up to bullet resistant strengths capable of withstanding multiple rounds of fire from super-power hand guns. Makroform says the hard coated surface has “exceptional” resistance to abrasion and UV degradation.

Battenfeld Gloucester Engineering Co., USA, has developed an automatic roll unloading system for cast stretch film makers. Operating either in manual or automatic mode, the system strips the finished rolls from the winder’s cantilevered shaft onto an unloading table. Then the machine loads a pre-selected number of cores onto the empty shaft. The unload table then tips the rolls onto a platform, so the operator can pack the rolls. At the same time, empty cores are reloaded from one of two large core bins onto the core conveyor before the next transfer.
The new roll unloader works with the entire line of Model 1002 automatic surface/center winders, including the 1002S, 1002D, 1002DS and 1002CS.
Tel. (978) 282-9420, fax (978) 282-9111.

Amcor Ltd., Australia, will acquire Spanish flexible packager and extruder Tobepal SA. One report estimated the deal at (US$37.6 million to $40.3 million). Tobepal operates three plants in Spain: one at Burgos and two at Logrono.

Dynamic Melt Mixer Inc., USA, claims its machine mixes resins and makes alloys on a single-screw extruder, a process that normally requires twin-screw extruders. The company builds new machines and also supplies the Dynamic Melt Mixer as a retrofit onto existing single-screw or twin-screw extruders, according to President Desi Csongor. The first part of the process uses a main single-screw extruder to feed the melt to a second section, which uses a series of rotors and stators. Satellite extruders feed materials to the melt. The rotors and stators achieve efficient, dynamic mixing, blending components under tightly controlled shear rates and temperatures, Csongor said. Temperature and viscosity can be pre-set to make material suited for a specific end-product, he said. Tel. (978) 526-2419, fax (978) 526-8838, e-mail dmxinc1@aol.com.

A new supplier of copolyester PET shrink film is due to begin operating by the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi Polyester Film LLC is converting one of its PET film lines in Greer to make the fast-growing product. The line´s capacity will be 10 million pounds per year, according to David Shupe, manager of sales and marketing for PET shrink film.

Brampton Engineering Inc. has added new options for roll size and more efficient handling on its film winders.
The company in Brampton, Ontario, developed a simple shaft-handling system for nonpivoting air shafts. A hoist lifts the roll and air shaft to a shaft holder stand, which clamps onto one end of the air shaft. A roll handler removes the roll and a new core is inserted. The shaft then is unclamped and the hoist returns the shaft to the winder. On winders with pivoting shafts, the hoist supports the free end of the shaft until the handler takes the weight of the roll and pulls the roll of the shaft.

LB Plastics, UK, is expanding its window, door and conservatory production operations in a multi-million pound investment programme with the creation of a new factory at Ambergate, close to its headquarters in Derbyshire. The expansion will initially create 50 jobs when production begins in May. The previously derelict 100-acre Ambergate site was bought by LB’s parent company, the Litchfield Group, last year. The group has completed the refurbishment providing more than 27,500 sq metres of factory and warehouse space. It is now installing a door production and finishing plant ahead of next month’s start-up. In addition to its factories at Nether Heague and Ambergate, the Litchfield Group has UK plant at Knaresborough and manufacturing facilities in Germany, Poland, the US and Australasia. It employs 1,000 people worldwide.

Spanish and Portuguese processors and converters of sheet and film produced by flat die extrusion are invited to a one-day seminar on new developments in dies and ancillary equipment systems to be held in Barcelona on October 22, it was announced today by Mircan 1979 S.L., organizer of the event. The company represents a range of key equipment suppliers in the field, including Extrusion Dies, Inc. (EDI), which will make presentations at the seminar on innovations in flat dies and coextrusion feedblocks.

The two EDI presentations will be made by Dr. Alberto J. Rincón, technical sales manager. Other presentations will cover on-line viscosity measurement, screen changers and diverter valves, melt pumps, and gauge measurement and control, according to Mircan managing director Carles Miró, who noted that the seminar is the first such event sponsored by his company.

“This seminar provides an opportunity for many processors and converters in Spain and Portugal to obtain a systematic overview of innovations in the tooling and ancillary systems that are essential components of an extrusion line,” said Miró. “The EDI segments of the program alone will cover such new developments as enhanced gauge control, streamlined manifold designs, leak-proof deckling, feedblocks that are adjustable on-line, and a range of improvements designed to reduce downtime for product changeovers or die cleaning.”

Free of charge to manufacturers and converters of sheet and cast film, the seminar will take place at the Barcelo Hotel Sants in Barcelona. All presentations will be in Spanish. Details and an agenda are available from Mircan 1979 S.L. Representing EDI in Spain and Portugal, it is located at Badal, 75, 08014 Barcelona. Tel: 34-932967174. Fax: 34-933314322. E-mail: mircan-carles@jet.es. Web: www.mircan1979.com.

Gillard, UK, has launched its new Servo-Torq Ultra extrusion cutter, the most accurate machine the company has built. This machine uses the latest AC brushless servo motors with a fully digital control system. Gillard claims that this system can hold length accuracies to within ± 0.1 mm, even at very high linespeeds. A key feature is that both caterpillar infeeder belts have their own AV servo drive. These are synchronised to within one encoder pulse per motor revolution. This represents a speed holding accuracy of better than 0.0005%, according to Gillard. Another important feature is that the caterpillar has been moved much closer to the knife blade. This is of particular importance when handling ultra-small diameter tubing. The company has tested the machine on tube diametres down to 0.3 mm outer diametre. The latest Siemens touch-screen control panel is included as standard, which includes screens for machine operation, parts storage, cascading, calibration and diagnostics. In total there are 20 screens available that can be customised if required.