EPPM 14.6

August 2012

Volume 14 | Issue 06 On-site Issue

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Biobased PLA Securing a sustainable future for our next generations Biobased | Recyclable | Biodegradable High temperature resistance | High impact resistance Purac will reveal commercially available bioplastic solutions for injection molded parts at Fakuma 2012. Discover tailor-made PLA blends based on Purac Lactides for a multitude of applications in the automotive, consumer goods, packaging and textile industries. www.purac.com/bioplastics

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in this issue

production art samantha hamlyn production peter bartley production adrian price

advertising european sales manager caroline plant tel: +44 (0) 1829 770037

MACHINERY

pages 6–18

REGULARS:

SHOWCASE: TEMPERATURE CONTROL SHOWCASE: INJECTION MOULDING SHOWCASE: PRINTING & DECORATING

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MATERIALS

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REGULARS: Latest news roundup Industry news

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SHOWCASE: CAPS & CLOSURES

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FAKUMA 2012 PREVIEW

pages 25–31

THE GREEN ROOM

pages 32–33

REGULARS: Latest news roundup

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SHOWCASE: PLASTICS IN SOLAR POWER

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CLASSIFIEDS

pages 34–35 EPPM 3

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EPPM 4

John Ellis, Segment Manager Polycarbonate, Bayer MaterialScience

Clive Maier, Owner and Director, Econology Ltd.

Aerospace Biopolymers

Alex Collins, Director, Vannplastics Ltd.

Sourcing & Manufacturing

Andrew McArthur, Engineering Manager, IKO

Nigel Brown, Founding MD, Frontier Aerospace

Dr Martin Kay, Chief Consultant, Pira International

Jan Herring, Strategic Sourcing Leader, Nokia

Charmaine Bowers, Operations Manager, Polymer Training & Innovation Centre

Pipe Extrusion Recycling Micro Manufacturing Automotives & Compounds Home Appliances

Graeme Diston, Senior Injection Moulding Engineer, Bausch + Lomb

Mark Bonifacio, President, Bonifacio Consulting Services

Andy Bone, Sales Director, Formaplex

Andrew Smith, Head of Manufacturing, Numatic International

Wire & Cable

Simon Chidgey, Director, M&H Plastics

Jonathon Short, MD, ECO Plastics Ltd.

Jon Herbert, Director, FS Cables

Biopolymers/Materials Science

Paul Maley, Senior Mechanical Engineer, Selex Elsag

General Industry Insight

Martin Marron, MD, Biffa Polymers

James Goddard, Honorary Lifetime Member, Plastics Pipe Institute

Dr Terence A. Cooper, CEO, ARGO Group International

Ken Braney, 2010-2011 President, Society of Plastics Engineers

Advisor for the German & Scandinavian Speaking Countries

Film & Sheet Extrusion Recycling Mould Making Packaging

Barry Assheton, Sales Director, CRDM

Graham Pickwell, Technical Adviser, Polymer Training & Innovation Centre

Medical

Injection Moulding Recycling Blow Moulding

John Bunker, Member, Worshipful Company of Horners

Medical

Rapid Prototyping

Omer Kutluoglu, CEO, 2K Manufacturing

Education in the UK & Ireland

David Gray, Editor

John Sturgess, Director, MG Stuma

Andrew Feilden, Principle Consultant, Smithers Rapra

Construction

Welcome to issue 14/6 of EPPM. This is the first of two special issues dedicated to our friends in Friedrichshafen, Germany, who will be offering the largest European platform this year for doing business across the plastics sector. I'm talking about Fakuma, one of the first major trade shows I ever attended in this job, and certainly the one with the finest surroundings. Situated on the edge of Lake Constance, I'm one of the lucky visitors each year who gets to take the morning ferry across the water to start work — albeit only for a few days.

But enough about that — after all, this is business, not a holiday! And business is something that all Fakuma exhibitors can pretty much guarantee. Geographically, Fakuma is well placed to attract visitors from across Europe, just a stone’s throw from Switzerland and Austria, with France and Italy nearby. This year, the show's organisers are claiming that exhibition space is almost fully booked, and are citing improved transport links with Africa and the Americas as one of the reasons for the strong interest. So yes, in terms of volume and demographic variety, Fakuma will definitely be a vast hub for business this year.

And as for the nature of the displays, it has historically been seen as the main event for injection moulding machinery and equipment. However, as has been the case in recent years, the event will also see a host of materials suppliers, demonstrating some of the world's most advanced plastics and end-use applications.

Similarly, the show now places a stronger emphasis on all types of extrusion equipment.

Nevertheless, last year 67% of visitors to the show were in the market for new machinery to enhance their injection moulding processes. So it's safe to say that all the big names will be there, all running several huge machines, and considerably raising the temperature for five days in the Messe Friedrichshafen. Even though it takes place in mid-October, I'd be prepared to bet that you won't require a jacket at Fakuma 2012.

Wood Plastic Composites

Fakuma fills up and heats up...

Plastics for the Environment

from the editor

General Industry Insight

“

Our Editorial Advisory Board is compiled of a cross-section of the plastics industry, including processors, consultants, technicians and key industry figures.

Dr Gerd Schmaucks, Independent Consultant

cover story

Biobased PLA Taking the heat, delivering performance

Safer & more friendly for our planet

100% biobased

PLA is made from renewable, biobased resources and has a considerably lower carbon footprint than other plastics. It is also biodegradable, leaving behind no harmful substances.

PLA resin is 100% biobased and is made from renewable resources. Purac uses sustainably grown feedstocks that are 100% GMO-free.

Proven durable applications

Available on an industrial scale

PLA applications have already been developed and introduced to the consumer market. These applications have proven to be successful, which demonstrates the competence of this polymer.

PLA is already available at an industrial scale. A recent Nova market study predicts that the PLA market will exceed 800,000 T by 2020.

What is PLA? Made from natural, renewable resources such as sugarcane or corn, PLA (Poly Lactic Acid) bioplastic provides producers with a reliable, biobased solution that can be recycled or composted after use. Purac, a Dutch Lactide producer with 80 years of experience in Lactic Acid production, has successfully developed a heat resistant PLA technology that could unlock vast market potential as a biobased replacement for PS and PP.

performance had to be improved and consistently reliable. “While we were encouraged by the increased production of biobased disposables across the globe, we felt that it was time for brand owners and producers to recognise the value of biobased PLA in their durable applications”, said François de Bie, Marketing Director at Purac Bioplastics. “For example, automotive components, carpets, all types of demanding consumer and lifestyle products”.

PLA reaching increasingly high performance levels The performance properties of today’s commercially available PLA vary greatly, and for certain applications such as disposables, low heat applications and some forms of packaging, this was not a critical hurdle.

According to Purac, the challenge was clear. “We needed to deliver a new level of PLA performance, which for us started with the development of stereochemically pure L and D Lactide. The resulting PLA homopolymers were far more resistant to high temperatures and impact, which are both key requirements for durable applications”, explained François.

However, in order to offer biobased PLA as a viable option for durable or high heat applications,

“We have shown how biobased PLA can now be used in high heat applications, such as cups in hot drink vending machines for example. But more significantly, this technology allows PLA to be used in durable applications such as the dashboard in your car or your mobile phone housing”, François continued. “The possibilities are so broad that we envisage a future where we could all be surrounded by biobased PLA articles: from carpets and children’s toys, to sportswear and coffee machines”.

Fakuma 2012: discover the possibilities Learn more about Purac’s commercially available bioplastic solutions for injection moulded parts at Fakuma 2012, at booth B4-4207 (Hall B).

Charpy Notched Impact / kJ/m2

Closing the performance gap

Purac Lactides for PLA are: • Biobased • Recyclable • Biodegradable • Made from GMO-free feedstocks

PLA homopolymer blend: impact

20

16

ABS Impact modification

12

PP

8 4

LA

ted with PD

PLLA nuclea

PLA

HIPS

PLA homopolymer blends: high heat

0 60

80

100

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Heat performance: HDT B / 0.45MPa, °C

Purac Bioplastics Tel: +31 183 695 695 Email: f.de.bie@purac.com Web: www.purac.com/bioplastics EPPM 5

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MACHINERY

Hygienic Weighfeeder Designed for Ease of Cleaning The MULTIDOS L Weighfeeder from Schenck Process reportedly delivers outstanding results for gravimetric feeding or when recording mass flows of materials. The product is suited for compact installation locations as well as being very economic to run, virtually maintenance-free and can be dismantled and re-assembled in seven minutes for ease of cleaning.

The MULTIDOS L is available both as an open design or with a dustproof housing variant and can be supplied in standard designs or in special designs for a host of different industry sectors. This weighfeeder is an individual, customised solution for any application.

The MULTIDOS L has a hygienic design which satisfies the most stringent hygienic requirements of the food industry with FDA certified product contact parts. For example, the weighing module is very easy to dismantle and assemble, saving time and effort for frequent cleaning intervals and wet cleaning. All relevant parts for cleaning are secured with easy to use plug connections. The casing can be taken off and the mechanism removed to the side. This allows the MULTIDOS L to be dismantled and re-assembled in just seven minutes.

The standardised modular system with a band width of 300 to 1,200mm and wheel bases of between 1,000 and 3,500mm is available in stainless steel.

The maximum output is 170m³/hr with high-precision measuring and feeding of between ±0.25 and ±0.5% MULTIDOS L can be easily adapted to a large number of applications. The weigh module is used as a measuring and feeding system. By integrating weighing technology from Schenck Process, the system precisely handles a wide variety of products such as cocoa powder, cereals, salt or freeze-dried vegetables.

The open variant of the MULTIDOS L model is also used for special applications in the meat-processing industry, for example when making mincemeat or sausages where those processes requiring the most stringent of hygiene standards.

The control unit DISOCONT or the new INTECONT Plus electronics are used with the MULTIDOS L for feeding or measuring systems. The control electrons are fully compatible to interfacing with modern BUS connections such as Profibus DP, Ethernet or DeviceNet thus making linking to on-site process control systems simple. EasyServe configuration and parameterisation software also offers user-friendly assistance.

Schenck Process UK Tel: +44 1302 321 313 Email: enquiries@schenckprocess.co.uk Web: www.schenckprocess.co.uk

Amut Expands in Automotive Pipe Extrusion Extrusion specialist Amut has recently sold several plants for the production of pipes in the automotive industry. In addiction to multilayer PA lines, the company has also recently designed and sold plants for the production of pipes in polyvinylidene (PVDF) and polyoxymethylene (POM) with a 2.5 mm diameter and 0.35 mm thick.

These materials are particularly suitable for applications in the automotive sector: stiffness, strength and dimensional stability, combined with low friction coefficient, give the small pipes a great flow behaviour and wear resistance.

The pipes are also resistant to high temperatures and to acids and oxidizing agents.

The products must be approved and certified according to strict international standards. For this reason the lines designed by Amut for the automotive industry are equipped with high

precision diameter/thickness gauging and adjusting systems that, together with the process stability of the extruder, ensure consistent quality production over time.

The latest line from Amut for the European market is comprised of an EA48 single screw extruder, extrusion equipment for different thermoplastic materials, gear pump, calibration and cooling tanks with options for temperature control, diameter/thickness gauging and adjusting system, haul-off, cutting unit and winder. At the end of the line it is possible to cut the product in different lengths thanks to a high-speed cutter and a conveyor belt which gathers the pieces automatically.

Amut Tel: +39 0321 6641 Email: amut@amut.it Web: www.amut.it EPPM 6

MACHINERY ROUNDUP eppm

INDUSTRY NEWS

UK Firms Team Up to Supply Automation Solutions

A new company has come to the forefront in the UK injection moulding sector. PCMoulding & Automation, now just 2 years old, has teamed up with Premier Moulding Machinery to promote its comprehensive range of Max-Robot robotics products. PMM is the official agent for Max-Robot in the UK and the partnership will mean that a total solution is now available, using PMM’s injection moulding machines, integrating the robots and supplying the automation cell. With PCMA’s knowledge and experience with automation the two companies are certain of tapping into the everincreasing demand for turnkey solutions in the injection moulding industry.

Richard Hird, Sales Director PMM, commented: “With their enthusiasm and experience, PCMA are the ideal partner and a key element to enable us to grow the Zhafir and Max-Robot brands.”

PCMA was founded in 2010 by Peter Crossley. In 2012 Roger Ewers joined as Sales Director and since then they say they have not looked back.

Roger Ewers said: “Max-Robot is a new name to the UK market but we have every confidence in their foresight and optimism as the investment program at Max in China is on a very large scale.

They will move into a brand new 20,000m2 purpose built factory by August of this year, which shows their commitment to not only the UK, but world market too”.

PCMA and PMM have invested in a full servo robot, which will be installed at PCMA’s base in Dewsbury. The main aim is to give potential customers the chance to see the robots in action, and existing customers to be able to use the facility for training. Max Robot has this year launched its new control system, which is very user friendly. Many control systems for robots can be complicated for operators, but the company saw this and developed a drag and drop system which has minimal text and mainly symbols, which gives even the least experienced setter a head start.

If budgets do not stretch to a new robot, PCMA has developed its own control system which allows a perfectly good robot with obsolete electronics to be upgraded for a fraction of the cost of new.

A full re-furbished machine is also possible for something a little closer to a new robot.

PCMA Tel: +44 7581 317769 Email: info@pcmoulding.co.uk Web: www.pcmoulding.co.uk

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MACHINERY ROUNDUP New Recycling System Turns Purgings into Useful Regrind Summit Systems Managing Director Mike Jordan has travelled to the US to gather more information about the new products that Maguire Inc, one of Summit’s major suppliers, has available and coming into production.

Of particular interest, says Summit, is a purging recovery system developed by the team at Maguire. Prior to its arrival in the UK it has undergone an extensive development program in the US and Maguire now has over 100 units in operation in the US market. Paul Edmondson, Maguire Europe’s Managing Director said: “The product has been such an obvious success in

the US that with several years of experience under our belt, we feel the time is right to bring the product to the European market. Accordingly, the purge recovery system has undergone the necessary CE conformity work required for this and we are excited to have the product available for supply in the UK.” An alternative to conventional size reduction equipment, this system transforms purgings into high-quality regrind. Until now, size-reduction of purgings has meant buying a massive, heavy-duty granulator, or using a shredder in combination with a standard

granulator. Another option has been cutting the parts with a saw before granulation.

The purging recovery system efficiently reduces purgings into high quality regrind in two simple stages, contained in one compact piece of machinery which costs significantly less than these other methods.

In the first stage, a chamber filled with purgings moves back and forth over a 2level platform. Mounted between the upper and lower level of the platform is a high-speed 8-knife rotor. As the chamber moves from the lower level toward the upper level the rotor literally planes just

Mike Jordan (left) with Steve Maguire (right) over 2cm off the bottom of the purgings.

The resulting chips are propelled down into the second stage. This second stage performs the final size reduction.

An internal rotary granulator is positioned directly below the planer and produces uniform granulate suitable for immediate processing.

Mike Jordan said: “We see time and time again the need for our customers to reduce production costs whilst respecting the need for evermore focus on lowering their carbon footprint. The purge recovery system is estimated to use only 1/5th of the power of the products now used to achieve similar results. This translates to huge energy cost savings. For those processors who landfill purgings or reprocess through third parties, the purge recovery system has a liberating effect, as in-house closed loop recycling reduces cross contamination risks, eliminates freight costs and reduces labour. The cost savings can be significant and we invite UK processors to look at the potential with us by taking advantage of the free trials we are currently offering here at our Tamworth base.”

Summit Systems Tel: +44 1827 265800 Email: info@summitsystems.co.uk Web: www.summitsystems.co.uk

EPPM 8

MACHINERY ROUNDUP Beta LaserMike Introduces Laser Non-Contact Measurement System for Plastic Extrusion Applications

3D Non-Contact and Integrated Multi-Sensor Measuring on Show at Mediplas 2012

Beta LaserMike, a leading global provider of precision measurement and control solutions has introduced the LaserSpeed non-contact encoder to help plastics manufacturers accurately control the length and speed of products during extrusion processes.

Controlling the length and speed of product during continuous and semicontinuous extrusion processes is critically important to producing quality results. Speed fluctuations directly affect the elongation, surface finishing, and hardening of material. Defects can manifest themselves as surface cracking, internal cracking, piping effect, and surface lines. Obtaining accurate length measurements is also important to controlling cutting operations because it ensures materials are produced to specific product size requirements.

The LaserSpeed encoder from Beta LaserMike solves this problem because it directly measures the product’s surface without contact. Unlike mechanical contact encoders that indirectly measure products and are subject to slippage and calibration issues, LaserSpeed uses advanced laser-based technology to precisely measure the length and speed of product during production. This laser encoder projects a unique pattern on the surface of the extruded product. As the product moves, light is scattered back to the LaserSpeed encoder. This information is translated into product speed and pulses are produced to

OGP UK is to use the Mediplas 2012 exhibition to demonstrate its capability and versatility to measure combinations of single parts or multiple sets of components made from plastic and other materials using advanced 3D noncontact video-based and contact tactile measuring machines.

The equipment, which will be installed on stand N29, incorporates multi-sensor measuring technology that is able to integrate up to four or five previous separate measurement devices into a single machine unit that incorporates high precision video optics with sophisticated LED lighting and/or touch probe, tactile and laser scanning sensors.

In addition, white light nanometre sensors provide the ability to measure translucent or highly reflective surfaces.

Taking key products to the show to provide an insight to the overall capability of the OGP range, these include the bench-top Snap, a midrange Flash and high-end Vantage to provide different aspects involving demonstrations of measuring flexibility.

Inspection cycles will be run on complex plastic medical components using a single, fast, accurate and repeatable measuring operation.

The OGP Snap benchtop non-contact machine provides a very competitively priced 2D measuring capability for quick and accurate measurement without any need for fixtures. Snap has a 78mm field of view and a zoom facility.

The OGP Flash CNC 200 has the

determine the product length. Length and speed measurements are captured with better than +0.05% accuracy, +/0.02% repeatability. Beta LaserMike offers a complete line of LaserSpeed encoders with measurement speeds up to 12,000 m/min, standoff distances to 1000 mm, and measurement depth of field to 100 mm.

The LaserSpeed encoder is designed for heavy industrial environments, is easy to install, and is factory calibrated for lowmaintenance operation. The measurement is performed optically, so there are no parts to wear out.

Manufacturers realise significant savings in the first few months and benefit from a low cost of ownership.

Beta LaserMike Tel: +49 231 758 930 Email: marcel.kloubert@betalasermike.com Web: www.betalasermike.com

EPPM 9

smallest measuring volume of 200mm in X and Y and 150mm in Z of the Flash series of machines. It has a patented 12:1 AccuCentric zoom lens with auto calibration and a patented range of illumination devices including LED lights, a SmartRing (TM) and features multisensor functions through touch probe for full 3D geometry capture and fast and accurate surface scanning.

Meanwhile, incorporating the highest level of measuring technology the OGP Vantage 300, a mid measuring volume machine in the series, has an X of 300mm, Y of 150mm and Z of 200 mm.

It carries multiple sensors for seamless programmable measuring cycles without operator intervention. Cycles can incorporate video for high speed measurement of complex geometry and scanning, laser for free-form surfacing, white light for translucent and mirrored surfaces and 3D touch probe for contact measurement.

OGP UK Tel: +44 1283 585933 Email: andrewf@ogpuk.com Web: www.ogpuk.com

SHOW TEMPERATURE CONTROL Tricool Thermal to Present New Tool Heater Range at Fakuma Temperature control group Tricool Thermal will showcase its new collection of advanced mould heaters on stand A33310 at Fakuma this year.

The group will be presenting its brand new T90 range of heaters, which offer highly effective water heating with maximum reliability for a longer life. Available in three different models, the T90e, T90s and T90m, the range offers accurate and continuous temperature control. In addition, Tricool Thermal’s latest ECO-T heating and cooling unit will be available to view as well as the innovative HTF oil heater. All units can easily be tailor-made for specific customer requirements working within a wide variety of industry sectors including plastics and rubber.

Furthermore, attendees will have the chance to experience the brand new C7 advanced touch screen controller. This innovative controller has been developed for thermoregulators to provide in depth, technological temperature analysis.

Design development has been reevaluated in order to provide the customer with a more advanced system which is easy to navigate and can analyse processes in great detail, ensuring every

aspect of the temperature and control is working to maximum productivity.

Whether visitors are looking for heating or cooling products or just need advice on the best products for their applications, Tricool Thermal’s experienced technical sales representatives will be on hand to provide trustworthy and knowledgeable information. For specific requirements, the skilled design team can bespoke build units using the latest 3D CAD technology

to cater for all temperature needs.

Tricool’s Director, Dave Palmer commented on the show: “Fakuma is a brilliant opportunity for us to present our units to potential and existing customers. It allows attendees to get up close and personal with the units; discovering how they work and what benefits their processes can gain from implementing our specialist temperature control equipment. Additionally, Tricool can benefit

EPPM 10

from speaking face- to- face with customers to ensure we are providing everything they require to the highest level of quality and efficiency.”

Tricool Thermal will be exhibiting in hall A3, stand 3310.

Tricool Thermal Tel: +44 800 774 7404 Email: info@icstemp.com Web: www.tricool.com

CASE New Chiller Cuts Cooling Costs for Plastics Processors by 30-60% A new kind of ultra-efficient chiller for cooling plastics injection moulding machines can reportedly cut users’ energy costs by between 30 and 60%.

On some projects, the savings can cut pay-back time to less than a year.

The Turbomiser uses a new type of compressor based on virtually frictionless magnetic bearings.

When combined with high efficiency EC fans and its onboard intelligent control system, the chiller can more than halve the energy costs associated with conventional chillers.

The award-winning chiller is the fruit of a five year development programme by UK specialist Cool-Therm, its partners and Italian manufacturer Geoclima. The technology is proven with some 200 successful installations to date in offices, hotels and computers centres across the UK. Its inventors are now targeting the plastics processing industry, which depends on effective cooling to ensure consistency, maintain productivity and deliver high quality results.

The technology is proven for use in cooling buildings. Turbomisers used to replace aging chillers at Colt’s West London data centre are delivering

energy savings of 55% a year, according to the company’s own consumption figures. A replacement project at the world-famous Dorchester Hotel in London is saving the company some £10,000 a month in energy costs.

These savings continue to accrue over the life-time of the plant, which is normally between 10 to 15 years.

Ken Strong, managing director of CoolTherm, said: “The energy performance is staggering. These kind of savings are unheard of with conventional technology, and it gives printing companies a decisive advantage in terms of running costs. And the savings go on accumulating throughout the life of the plant. Year on year, it’s also delivers a huge reduction in carbon emissions.”

The latest generation of Turbomiser is equipped with an evaporative system on the face of condensers coils. This “adiabatic advantage” effectively reduces temperatures in the vicinity of cooling coils by up to 8˚C, further improving the chiller’s energy performance.

Water consumption is extremely frugal, with a standard unit in UK conditions using around £600 worth of water a year to deliver energy savings worth some £8000.

The chiller uses a combination of high

efficiency components and technologies, combined with a highly sophisticated adaptive control system that integrates and optimises performance.

Key design features include: • Micro-channel aluminium condensers, that increase the effectiveness of heat exchange; • Flooded evaporators that ensure optimum energy transfer between refrigerant and water; • Inverter-controlled Turbocor compressors whose output can be precisely matched to load; • An adiabatic cooling system that significantly increases cooling capacity and reduces energy consumption.

Case Study: Advanced Temperature Control System Boosts Hot Runner Productivity Precise control over hot runner temperatures was the key to ending a problem with burned parts that plagued a particular job being run by custom moulder American Plastic Molding Corporation (APM), enabling the company to increase output of saleable product by 10 to 15%.

The part discoloration caused by burning stopped almost immediately after connecting an Ion Series temperature controller from Fast Heat Inc. to a 16cavity hot runner system that was producing 30% glass-filled nylon 6.6 parts for a Tier 1 supplier to the automotive industry, according to Alan Myers, APM plant manager. Within two hours after installing the controller, APM had finetuned the system to the point where temperatures were reduced by nearly 21˚C. “Before we installed the Fast Heat controller, we were unable to reduce the temperature without having gates freeze,” said Myers, “but within the first couple of hours, it became a question of ‘How low can the temperature go?’ We soon established a new temperature range of 430 to 440˚C. The lower temperatures increased our output of good parts by 10 to 15% and eliminated the labor involved in sorting out parts that were burned.”

Fast Heat’s Ion Series controller has also increased productivity in other ways, according to Myers. In startups it quickly tunes the system to the new set of moulding parameters. And in the event of a zone shutdown caused, for example, by a heater failure, the controller automatically slaves the affected cavity to another cavity, running two cavities from the thermocouple in the unaffected one.

“In the past, when a zone shut down, we would end up producing from 15 cavities instead of 16, making that much less product during the typical three-day turnaround needed to replace the defective unit,” said Myers.

Fast Heat (UK) Tel: +44 1323 647375 Email: sales@fastheatuk.com Web: www.fastheatuk.com EPPM 11

Ken Strong said: “The latest generation of Turbomiser chillers is also now available using HFO1234ze refrigerant, which has a global warming potential 217 times less that conventional refrigerants. It is almost certainly the greenest and most efficient chiller in the world.”

The Turbomiser chiller is available in capacities from 250kW to 1.5MW, suitable for use in plastics processing application of all sizes.

Cool-Therm Tel: +44 117 961 0006 Email: enquiries@cooltherm.co.uk Web: www.cooltherm.co.uk

SHOW INJECTION MOULDING Learn How to Improve IMM Productivity with SMED, Quick Mould Changing, Quick Mould Clamping There are many solutions to improving productivity and profitability in an injection moulding shop, but selecting those that will yield the most benefit can prove challenging. Stäubli’s quick mould changing demonstration vehicle is an excellent opportunity to review a range of innovative and effective systems first hand.

Stäubli’s Demonstration Vehicle includes presentations on products and systems that reduce mould changeover times, improve operational efficiency and are an important step in the move towards the achievement of SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Dies).

It provides visitors with interactive displays and a ‘hands on’ opportunity to review the latest mould connection and clamping technology for plastics companies. Experienced Stäubli personnel are on board to discuss specific requirements and demonstrate possible solutions to help visitors save money.

Demonstrations include a number of specific applications featuring the latest Stäubli technology now being used to speed up mould changing. Applications such as pre-heating, temperature control, core pulling, tool changing, sequential injection as well as

mechanical, hydraulic and magnetic mould clamping systems.

Stäubli’s flexible quick mould change systems are designed to integrate with existing installations to optimise productivity. The four main focus areas are: • Mould loading tables and trolleys — handle moulds quickly and safely.

• Quick mould clamping — mechanical, hydraulic or magnetic systems — mould clamping in just a few seconds.

• Mould connecting circuits — Stäubli have the right solution — mono or multi, temperature control, compressed air or hydraulic.

• Parts handling — automatic tool changers for robot arms.

The demonstration vehicle will be in the UK during August and September 2012.

Interested companies should register now on the dedicated Stäubli website – www.staubli.com/roadshow-uk so that their request can be considered for inclusion in the tour schedule.

Stäubli (UK) Ltd. Tel: +44 1952 671918 Email: connectors.uk@staubli.com Web: www.staubli.com

Novel Injection Moulding Process Could Cut Car Part Weights in Half Leading automotive plastics component supplier Mecaplast believes it can cut the weight of interior and exterior trim parts by between 30-50% by using a newly patented injection moulding processing technology in combination with polypropylene compounds.

Mecaplast, headquartered in Monaco and with numerous production facilities across France as well as in Europe, Turkey, Brazil, Mexico, China and India, is about to embark on a French government-sponsored project called Plume (French for Feather) to industrialise the process, which relies on a combination of moving mould cores, a

chemical blowing agent, and lightweight reinforcing fillers. The project starts in September, and will run for two years. It will have a total budget of €2.4 million.

The project will also involve the participation of several other French companies: compound producer Sumika Polymer Compounds (a Sumitomo Chemical Group company) based in Saint-Martin de Crau; mould-maker Cero, in Nantes; polymer science research laboratory IMP at the University of SaintEtienne; and Sophia Antipolis-based Cemef, a research laboratory from Mines ParisTech, associated with CNRS, with expertise in process simulation.

“Incorporation of parts made by the Plume process could lead to a total vehicle weight reduction of between 5 and 7kg,” said Elsa Germain, Research and Innovation Engineer at Mecaplast.

“This will have an important knock-on effect on fuel consumption, with resulting carbon dioxide emissions falling by around 0.5-0.7g/km.”

The process is similar to one already used in Japan for production of parts used by such automotive companies as Honda and Toyota. However, that process has some limitations, especially in terms of surface finish, since the parts are made with talc-filled polypropylene (PP). The Plume process will use newlydeveloped compounds that contain little or no talc.

Instead, they incorporate new reinforcing fillers that not only yield improved surface quality but also help reduce part weight by as much as 7%, without loss of mechanical properties. Compounds with various fillers will be trialled during the Plume project.

The new compounds, which are based on PP impact copolymer and are being developed exclusively for Mecaplast, also have very good flow properties. Melt flow index is over 50 g/10 min. This is critical for the success of the Plume process.

In the Plume process, material is injected

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into a mould with moving walls that are initially in the forward position. Once all the material has been injected, and the skins of the part have solidified, the walls retract. This lowers the pressure in the mould cavity, and chemical blowing agent, until now dissolved in the melt, comes out of solution in the areas of the part that are still fluid to create a cellular structure that fills the newly created space. The foaming process on its own (disregarding compound formulation) enables a weight reduction in the part of at least 30%, compared to a conventional solid moulding.

Cemef will look at melt rheology and its effects on the process and it will also carry out analysis of the microstructures created by the chemical foaming. IMPUJM will study the mechanical behaviour of parts made under various conditions.

Mecaplast plans to trial the process on two components, a tailgate interior trim and exterior beltline mouldings. The beltline mouldings will be produced in two versions, one with a grained surface that will require no painting and another that will be paintable.

Mecaplast Tel: +33 6 78 63 84 72 Email: egermain@mecaplast.com Web: www.mecaplast.com

CASE eppm

CASE STUDY

FANUC ROBOSHOT OFFERS ADVANTAGES FOR LONG-STROKE MULTI-CAVITY COMPONENTS

Sellner GmbH, a specialist in the production of writing, painting and drawing utensils, insists on using Fanuc Roboshot precision injection moulding machines made by Fanuc. Sellner produces ink cartridges, ink bottles, felt pens, marker pens and fine liners in various sizes and colours for all age groups, as well as blotters. The company specialises in long-stroke and multi-cavity production and is experiencing steady growth. The first Fanuc all electric injection moulding machine arrived in 2002. Recently, the eighth Roboshot was commissioned.

The company operates 24 hours a day, six days a week, running a total of 26 injection moulding machines. “Extrusion of the tiny tubes? We did not even consider that possibility further. Safety — wick and base tightness, production speed, varying lot sizes, assembly requirements, diversity of colours and materials and many more — the only option was injection moulding”, explained Max Höglinger, Sellner Production Manager. The first step for Sellner is to enter the relevant optimised process and control parameters of the part in question into the Roboshot control; they are controlled and documented at every stage, from quality assurance and control to assembly and packaging and commissioning, all according to customer criteria for product safety. The result is a first class product with a seamless inspection log.

Energetic practice and extensive experience A new product requires extensive dialogue with customers — from the draft design to CAD, mould construction (four experts), definition of the raw materials, plus the more than 100 colour options. Added to that, stringent EU guidelines, regulations, directions and threshold values applicable to articles of that nature have to be observed. Writing and colouring pens must — as they are used by children — be produced in totally harmless materials.

Pen caps are made incorporating circulation channels in order to prevent suffocation. But not just because of that are the tolerances in the range of hundredths of a millimetre. In addition, to take economy into consideration, Sellner works in the majority with hot-runner moulds of up to 64 cavities. Sprue and rejects are recyclable. The only exceptions are high-end products, where only virgin materials are used. Ten years ago, interest in electric injection moulding machines grew to such an extent that Sellner invested in its first machine — the first of eight Fanuc Roboshot S-2000i 100B machines, with 36 and 40 mm diameter screws respectively, which are more favourably priced than other comparable machines. The Sellner machine realised that the Fanuc provided increased productivity, in view of the many additional

accurately adjustable optimisation opportunities. They have realised that the Roboshot presents absolutely no breakdown aspects and zero complaints, thus demanding fewer personnel and maintenance requirements. Each shift is supervised by a QA specialist, one foreman and two plastics technicians in charge of machinery in operation. The Japanese machines work continuously, non-stop, producing countless quantities of pen shafts and caps/covers: “We can report most favourable results. Once programmed and process-optimised, there are no deviations whatsoever. Shafts have to be absolutely straight. Distortion caused by stress due to heat or cooling is taboo”, said Höglinger. The comparison with hydraulic machines demonstrates progress made: heat-up times for hydraulics oil are omitted with the Fanuc Roboshot. Add to that factors such as energy required to cool the water, continuous operation of the hydraulic pump, among others, the Roboshot reveals a considerable advantage in energy consumption. “We have carried out comparison measurements and established that our Japanese electric machines use only one third of the energy required to run hydraulic one”, said Höglinger, “And the third shot is the benchmark for the following thousands and thousands. Hydraulic machines require some 50 to 80 shots before a reliable production can commence. The start-up material can be recycled, but not the time lost.”

established what was determined by the user-friendly Fanuc software regarding quality supervision/monitoring for the protocol of each of the machines across the board.

Fanuc Tel: +49 7158 187 801 Email: info@fanucrobomachine.eu Web: www.fanucrobomachine.eu

White-board pen (left): PP, transparent or in 80 different colours Triangle: max. 20 radiuses, Length: 75mm Wall thickness: 0.1mm Cavities: 16 Weight: 3.4 g Cycle time: 20 sec Tolerance: 100th millimetre region

Multi-coloured plastics with precise parameters With 200 active moulds, the machine setters have, on average, just two mould changes to carry out per day.

The majority of the products are extremely well established parts manufactured in their millions; they all have to be precisely reproducible from the first to the last shot.

Time is money and safety comes first Using extremely complex moulds, where both hydraulic as well as electric machines get close to their limits, “I require around half an hour’s warm-up time with the hydraulic machines. After just a few minutes for the plasticising unit, the Fanuc has, following the production of several thousand perfect units, already made us a lot of money.

Not just time, but also footprint is part of the equation at Sellner: that is why transformers are located on walls, at a height of three meters behind the Roboshots. “In addition, the process constancy represents money. Here, quality assurance is most worthwhile”, said Max Höglinger. Apart from the extremely informative machine-specific documentation — supplied as standard control by Fanuc — Sellner also draws up additional testing protocols to offer customers increased safety, but also to comply with EU regulations.

Furthermore, additional samples are taken at irregular intervals to undergo non-destructive and destructive tests in the laboratory. Thus it is firmly

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Fine-liner or combination blotter etc. (2. from left): PP, yellow or in 80 different colours Diameter: 9.8mm Length: 125mm Wall thickness: 1.0mm Cavities: 36 Weight: 2.8 g Cycle time: 22 sec Tolerance: 100th millimetre range

Marker pen or giant marker (right): PP, white/black or in 80 different colours Diameter: 17.0mm Length: 116mm Wall thickness: 1.9mm Cavities: 4 to 36-cavity moulds Weight: 4 g Cycle time: 21 Tolerance: 100th millimetre range

MACHINERY SPOTLIGHT INJECTION MOULDING

INNOVATION AND INVESTMENT FOR LETTERGOLD PLASTICS

Newmarket based injection moulder Lettergold Plastics Limited are thrilled at the launch of their unique magnetic filter system, designed to protect modern efficient central heating boilers

in the domestic housing market. Andy Drummond, Director of Lettergold commented: “The requirement for a new magnetic filter in the market was lead by our customers, although magnetic filters already exist, a system offering an improved price/performance solution was called for�. The new filter offers an ingenious design for which patents are pending, it meets and exceeds the customers demands and will be available from many leading DIY stores and

Roger Cox ARBURG (Left) Darren Smith (Director) by the new ARBURG plumbers merchants via sister company Lettergold Water Treatment Solutions LLP. The DWTA trade association are working with Lettergold, to lobby Government that all new build housing or newly installed boilers are fitted with a magnetic filter ensuring modern boilers continually operate at their most efficient.

The commitment to manufacture this project, was total from this family run company, it was important to Andy Drummond that the manufacturing remained in the UK and was not sourced from the Far East. Initial design to manufacture took over 12 months and required significant investment, including a suite of new tooling. This was sourced from a UK tool maker to guarantee quality and service, Darren Smith Director of Lettergold worked with a major material manufacturer to ensure the polymers used meet the demanding standards required by the product, to give a service life of 15 years at 85ËšC This project also saw a milestone for Lettergold, with their first NEW machine, an ARBURG 570 C 2000800. The ARBURG was selected from the Golden Edition range as it offered the ideal price/performance ratio and the finance package offered by ARBURG gave Lettergold the breathing space to get product to market.

With a diverse range of individual customers including the Biotech market, Lettergold are experienced at moulding to exacting standards and are accredited to ISO 9001, BS25999 and ISO 14001.

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ARBURG Ltd. Tachbrook Park Drive Warwick CV34 6RH Tel.: +44 (0) 1926 457 000 Fax: +44 (0) 1926 457 020 e-mail: uk@arburg.com

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Arburg Ltd Tel: +44 19 26 45 70 00 Email: uk@arburg.com Web: www.arburg.co.uk

SHOWCASE

PRINTING & DECORATING Kammann Expands into the Printed Tubing Market The Kammann K15 CNC machine family has recently been complemented by new and innovative tube printing capabilities which allow users to fully leverage the benefits of this successful container printer for their specific market.

Screen printing is a popular choice when it comes to creating outstanding product appearance. High ink deposit, a wide range of printable substances and excellent line-work capabilities allow for very competitive end-products.

The tubing market is highly competitive and forces everybody in the industry to meticulously plan their cost-of-ownership model in order to secure sufficient margins. Kammann contributes to this by offering a modular platform design which reportedly goes far beyond everything the industry has ever seen. Cost efficiency and custom-made solutions are no longer contradictory terms.

The center and pivotal point of the concept is a 100-per-minute indexing table transport system, which is being available in different sizes and numbers of man-drels/stations. Six to 20 stations allow for almost every decoration process to be matched at a minimum cost.

The bandwidth of configurations ranges from one-colour-UV with manual in-feed

Kaye-Dee Marking Solutions Offers Flexible High Speed Digital Print Head Technology

to eight-colours-UV fully integrated into a production line with hot-foil, lacquer and visual print inspection. Via Kammann’s “App-Store” every basic design can be further refined by adding more “active ingredients” like pre-treatment devices (flame, anti-static, corona), positioning gear (mechanical, optical) to re-register or align with closures, special functions to fully automatically operate the screen heads (e.g. ink-refill, closed-loop colour register), LED-UV, additional drives for output boost, and lot else that makes the system more productive and the operator happy.

Kammann Tel: +49 5734 51400 Email: mail@kammann.de Web: www.kammann.de

The latest range of new industrial digital printers from Kaye-Dee Marking Solutions offers new opportunities for direct printing on products and components. High speed printing of products on the move allows increased output and a cost-effective solution for replacing conventional equipment with a digital print option.

The BE HS1 is a flexible high speed digital printing system, offering inline production by use of a precision conveyor. Customers can order the printing system as either a standard 4 colour machine with the addition of white for printing bright colours on dark backgrounds. Alternatively the machine can be configured to suit production requirements and can be built with inline pre-treatment of the user’s choice. Quick and easy changeover of the print image by remote computers avoids the need for operators to be involved when the

Tri-Layer Microextrusion System featuring one 12 mm and two 16 mm modular microextruders mounted on a common table support.

EPPM 15

image changes. It is also possible to offer a vision inspection system with a reject unloading station if required.

To experience this new technology of direct to substrate printing, interested parties can book a demonstration visit in Sheffield. For further details, contact Mick Beech direct on 07817 015 055.

Kaye-Dee Marking Solutions Tel: +44 114 256 0222 Email: info@kayedee.co.uk Web: www.kayedee.co.uk

SHOW PRINTING & DECORATING Report: How the Right Pad Printing Equipment Can Improve Profitability Pad printing is one of the most commonly used techniques for decoration in the plastics industry.

However, when choosing equipment, it’s important to be informed of the best choice for your needs and processes. Dalesway Print Technology, a UK distributor for GTO pad printing equipment has offered us the following report on how selecting the right machine can boost profitability in today’s difficult markets...

If you are a manufacturer, offering inhouse product marking and decoration is no doubt an avenue you may already have explored, as it is a relatively simple way of adding an additional revenue stream. However, the real question is how can you increase profits while offering the same or similar services to your clients?

Pad printing is not a new technique, but forward thinking manufacturers like GTO, a leading supplier of pad printing equipment, are always looking at ways to give their clients a competitive edge, allowing them to do better and offer more than the competition.

Pad print up to 70 cm in one stroke The traditional domain of the pad printer is one of modest print areas, which means that this incredibly versatile printing process cannot always be used, even when it is the ideal solution in every other way.

Thanks to GTO, pad printing technology has evolved and is now able to compete

with screen printing on a much wider variety of jobs, bringing the versatility of pad printing to a whole new range of applications.

With this in mind, Dalesway Print Technology are proud to offer a range of advanced pad printers with image area up to 700 x 170 mm in single colour format and 350 x 170 mm in two colour format.

The floor space required for these particular units is kept to a manageable 1.2m deep and 1.45 m wide, which makes them a viable proposition in every way, especially when combined with an impressive maximum print speed of 600 cycles per hour.

Utilise this extended print area in a variety of creative ways to save time on smaller jobs.

If pad printing products of this size seems rather too niche for your needs, consider how such a large print area could be used to print smaller areas much faster than normal, saving multiple setups and changeover time.

If you can print bigger image areas and hence keep more jobs in-house, or simply save downtime by utilising this impressive image area to do multiple smaller prints much faster, it will have a positive effect on your bottom line.

Naturally the GTO range of pad printers include a range of image areas to suit a wide variety of applications.

print area, and GTO offer two models that can print up to 3000 cycles per hour.

With maximum print areas of 60 x 60 mm, the Colibri models fit into a very compact 520 mm deep and 400 mm wide spot on your favourite bench.

A need for speed — would 5 prints every 6 seconds do?

Sometimes high volume jobs require a machine optimised for speed rather than

Dalesway Print Technology Tel: +44 845 224 1204 Email: info@dalesway.co.uk Web: www.dalesway.co.uk/gto.htm

The best businesses use the best machinery A cheap Far East copy may seem like a great idea when budgets are limited, but the savings will evaporate quickly when machine reliability becomes a problem and support is sadly lacking.

GTO machines have 5 Year Guarantee for complete peace of mind.

It is a fact that successful businesses always use the best equipment, and for very good reason – excellent design, reliability and high quality engineering are critical success factors.

A five-year industry-leading guarantee sets the GTO range apart from the competition. Thanks to top quality components all made in the EU and Japan, you can be confident that the risk of breakdown has been carefully calculated and minimised.

Choice, Flexibility, Design Excellence The product range of GTO represents a huge step forward for any business that either wants to enter or improve the way they decorate or mark products.

Dalesway represents a ranges of GTO machines.

Pad printing is a popular technique for many applications in the plastics industry.

EPPM 16

Black Metal Plating — the New Black?

Electroplating of plastic parts is becoming increasingly popular as it offers a durable surface with the look and feel of metal, but with the qualities of plastic as a light material, easy to manufacture in complex shapes. Metal plating has historically been available in a range of colours, with one notable exception — black. This has been a drawback, as black coloured items frequently occur in contemporary design. But new methods are emerging that offer the industrial designer use of the entire colour palette, even black.

Metallic trim on vehicles has made a dramatic comeback in recent years, as manufacturers seek ways to distinguish their products from the competition. The preferred substrate for vehicle trim is plastic, due to cost reasons but also for reasons of weight and ease of manufacture. As the technology for applying metal on plastic has developed, so have the fields of application. New areas include sanitary fittings, where metal is preferred due to the smoothness of the surface and its ease of cleaning; luxury packaging such as perfume bottles; drinks dispensers and bar fittings; and parts for white goods.

The growth in popularity of metal plating has also increased demand for other colour options as alternatives to bright chrome and a range of colours are today available in the market.

However, one colour that is in high demand is unfortunately difficult to produce — black. In contemporary design, black is considered stylish, elegant and powerful — properties highly desirable to luxury goods manufacturers. In the automotive industry, particularly in Germany, there is a tradition in having black trim and several German premium car manufacturers offer this as an option.

Some new methods can produce colour variations that come close to black, such as anthracite, but the full range of hues has not been available — until now.

Black — a challenging colour One reason black plating is difficult to produce is that it requires a dedicated wet plating line, something that can be difficult to justify bearing in mind the relatively small quantities. Designers looking to use black metal plating for new products tend to find that all available capacity is already being used by the automotive industry.

Because of environmental constraints, few new electroplating lines are installed, as many processes require hexavalent chromium, the most toxic form of chromium. For this reason, capacity in the metal plating industry tends to stay fairly static, rather than grow with increasing demand.

In this situation, physical vapour deposition, or PVD, has become the method of choice for many. PVD is a method to produce a metallic surface by bombarding the items with atoms of the

CASE required surface material under vacuum, using a dedicated type of machinery. Unlike traditional metal plating, this process is entirely dry and environmentally friendly.

Strong surface gives durable coating For a strong bond between the PVD coated surface and the plastic, the surface first needs to be electroplated.

But it doesn’t have to be black; this is what the PVD process adds. The PVD coating assumes the same characteristics as the base plating and will be just as durable.

An alternative method is to paint the plastic part with a primer to achieve a smooth surface ready for PVD coating.

After PVD coating, the surface may be coated with lacquer, which can be pigmented if desired.

Using PVD, it is possible to achieve any colour between bright chrome and jet-black (aka CILAB L 35).

Swedish company Impact Coatings is one supplier of PVD coating equipment looking to benefit from the current trend.

“We have one range of colours that goes from bright chrome, via anthracite to jet-black, and a bronze-coloured range that goes from champagne to something resembling dark chocolate,” said Petter Carlfjord, Sales Manager to the plastics industry at Impact Coatings.

PVD coating is produced in an entirely dry and environmentally-friendly process, using dedicated machinery that applies the coating under vacuum.

Impact Coatings has two ranges of metallic coating for plastic - bright chrome to jet-black, and a bronzecoloured range.

Meets car industry needs One of its customers is a German manufacturer of trim parts for premium cars. The company uses black PVD coated parts.

“Our customer and their customer have done extensive testing and found that the PVD coated surface meets the quality requirements. They also appreciate the flexibility of the process, which enables viable production in short series as well as for longer runs, and the ability to use the entire colour range to jet-black,” said Carlfjord.

“With PVD it is easy to achieve different colours in different batches. This is helpful to the manufacturer of the trim parts, as the perception of what is ‘true black’ will differ from one person to the next. The automotive industry in particular will never agree on a standard for black colour. With PVD it is easy the achieve the hue of black requested by the individual manufacturer,” Carlfjord continued.

As PVD enables production in small batches, it can also help keep quality costs low. Items can be inspected regularly to see whether any flaws show up. As plating is a more costly process than injection moulding, this helps keep quality costs low. Wastage can be reduced from perhaps 10% in a wet plating process, down to something like 3%.

“Demand for black plating is continuously increasing as manufacturers become more aware of the benefits of PVD coating. The future for black looks bright,” concluded Carlfjord.

Impact Coatings Tel: +46 13 35 95 32 Email: petter.carlfjord@impactcoatings.se Web: www.impactcoatings.se

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Using PVD coating, metallic surfaces in the entire colour range from bright chrome to jetblack can be produced.

New Installations

Bagging System Upgraded to Automatic Operation Several manual bagging systems at Albis (UK) Limited’s Knutsford site have been centralised and upgraded to automatic operation by Nottingham based Chronos BTH. As well as distributing branded products Albis also compounds its own blends of technical and engineering thermoplastics.

Previously these various compounds were manually bagged on dedicated packers on each extrusion line.

The new centralised automatic packing systems are based around a Tubular Form Fill and Seal system (T-FFS). Tote bins of product from the individual extrusion lines feed compounds via a feed bin into a gross weigher located above the T-FFS packer.

An important part of the system is the ability for simple clean-down to prevent cross contamination between different products. For this installation the T-FFS produces bags with a k-seal to create a 20 or 25 kg block-bottom bag, an integral top air vacuum system removes excess air from inside each bag. These integral features combine to assist automatic palletisation of the filled bags by a robot palletiser, with Chronos BTH’s unique slide gripper palletising head.

The robot palletiser positions its own empty pallets and slip sheets, before palletising filled bags. The loaded pallets are then conveyed to an automatic stretch wrapping system.

Chronos BTH Limited Tel: +44 115 9351351 Email: info@chronosbth.com Web: www.chronosbth.com

Kreyenborg Increases Blown Film Productivity with Continuous Screen Changers Kreyenborg GmbH has equipped several Hosokawa Alpine Aktiengesellschaft blown film plants with its K-SWE continuous screen changers.

The screen changers are designed with a separate control. The retrofit should eliminate production line shutdowns for Hosokawa during filter change and improve the filtration result, bringing an increase in plant availability and productivity. The technology in most blown film plants includes simple, discontinuous screen changer systems which make it necessary to shut down the line for filter change. These are commonly known as slide plate filtration systems.

Kreyenborg’s higher quality K-SWE screen changer is a modern filtration system that enables the exchange of the mesh without interrupting the production. This means the system can continue running while dirty filter elements are replaced or filtration finenesses for different production batches are changed.

Kreyenborg GmbH Tel: +49 251 214050 Email: s.woestmann@kreyenborg.de Web: www.kreyenborg.com EPPM 18

MATERIALS

Tenth SPE Foam Conference Makes European Debut

The Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) is bringing the International Conference on Foams and Foams Technology to Europe (Barcelona) from September 12-13, 2012.

The program will span two full days, consisting of 25 presentations on the key

areas of development for these materials.

The five major topic areas will focus on: innovation in foams, novel foaming technologies, sustainable foams, nanocomposite foams, micro and nanocellular foams.

The technical Programme Committee for Foams 2012 consists of: • Miguel Angel Rodriguez-Perez, CellMat Lab, University of Valladolid, Spain • Miguel Muñoz, Conference Co-Chair, Editec S.A • Vipin Kumar (University of Washington) • Neil Witten (Crosslink Technical Consulting) A poster session for graduate student papers will also be held.

From the 10–12 September, Foams 2012 will also host a tutorial, led by Professor Chul Park. This tutorial will provide

practical information to help attendees enhance their technical capabilities in foaming. It will focus on the development of new blowing agents to meet growing challenges, design foam products that meet customers’ needs, and improving the effectiveness of foam R&D and processing projects. The attendees will also receive updated key references on plastic foams.

The tutorial is intended for a range of companies and individuals involved in thermoplastic foam development, production, and applications, including: • R&D scientists and engineers, formulation scientists, process engineers, quality engineers and application engineers from thermoplastic foam production and manufacturing companies.

EPPM 20

• Chemists and chemical engineers involved in development of foaming grade resins and blowing agents.

• Foaming equipment manufacturing: design engineers, project engineers, and rheology specialists.

• Development engineers and research scientists working on new foam developments.

• Foam users and application specialists.

Workshops during the event will offer practical information on the development of new blowing agents, design of foam products, and basic technical background on foaming polymers.

SPE Tel: +1 203 775 8490 Email: info@4spe.org Web: www.4spe.org

Q&A DOW ELASTOMERS on an Olympic Effort, and the Global Infrastructure Megatrend

Dow is one of the most recognised names in a host of industries. In addition to its strong Performance Plastics division, many readers will be familiar with Dow Elastomers. This part of the company is currently making great strides into construction and infrastructure, with one especially high-profile customer in recent times: the London Olympics Organisation Committee.

David Gray, EPPM editor caught up with Enrique Torres, Marketing Manager Infrastructure, Dow Europe GmbH, to find out more about these Olympic projects, and what to expect to see in modern infrastructure going forwards…

First of all, please could you provide the readers with an overview of the infrastructure products at Dow Elastomers? What are the most common products requested by customers?

We are the largest supplier of polyethylene, and Dow Elastomers is the largest supplier of polyolefin elastomers.

That’s because we have unique technologies and a unique portfolio, with a broad product mix to enable a range of solutions. There are two key areas that our customers are looking for; these are sustainable solutions, and of course higher performance. Our polyolefin elastomers range is really dedicated to the infrastructure industry. Why infrastructure? Well, if you look at Dow as an overall chemicals company, we have identified certain global megatrends. One of them is infrastructure. Now, more specifically, there are three main areas within infrastructure where Dow Elastomers operates. One of them is flexible membranes, which can be waterproofing membranes, textile architecture and so on. The second area is flooring and rubberized surfaces for track and field applications, in playgrounds for example. And the third area is flexible profiles. These can be flexible tubes, gaskets for windows and doors, and interestingly all three of these areas will play a role in London at the recent Olympic Games.

So what sort of applications featured Dow products at the Olympics?

One of the applications was the wrap which was used around the key stadium in London. The ‘London wrap’ has been enabled by our unique molecular architecture polyolefin elastomers. These offer an array of benefits including flexibility and weldability. The second application was for flooring. In the German NOC House there was a rubberized surface, which offers flexibility, comfort and safety, but also improved colourability. A third application was carpet tiles, featured in Sochi Park. Our elastomers with a unique block structure were subsequently incorporated into the carpet tile's backing, which combine to enable ease of recyclability, an improved indoor air quality and more design flexibility.

Enrique Torres, Marketing Manager Infrastructure, Dow Europe Gmbh

And are the products developed as bespoke solutions (in the case of the Olympics for example) or are they supplied as standard?

We are currently investing in key megatrends. One aspect of this is the molecular architecture. This enables completely new things. In the case of the Olympic organisation committee, one of the key drivers was sustainability. There are more complicated ways of creating flexible membranes, with more energyintensive technologies, but our polyolefin elastomers were suited very well to the whole sustainability concept as they are.

MATERIALS ROUNDUP BASF Introduces Line Approved for Drinking Water

BASF has now started offering a portfolio of engineering plastics specially designed for applications that come into contact with drinking water.

The products from its Ultramid (PA), Ultradur (PBT) and Ultraform (POM) lines that have been approved for drinking water will now bear the additional trademark designation ‘Aqua’ in their names.

Examples are Ultramid A3EG10 FC Aqua, Ultradur B4300G6 FC Aqua and Ultraform N2320 FC Aqua. The drinking water portfolio is complemented by the proven and high-temperature resistant polyaryl sulfones, Ultrason P3010 and Ultrason S3010.

In addition to complying with the regulations for contact with drinking water, these plastics are also said to be approved for food contact (FC) and are produced according to good manufacturing practices. The special requirements of plastics that come into

And how about the recyclability of the products?

One of the things we always look at is the life-cycle assessment of our products.

Polyolefin elastomers can be used as a thermoset, but also as thermoplastics. So in principle, when used as thermoplastics, they can be recycled very easily. All of our polyolefin elastomers are supplied as thermoplastics. When we talk to customers, designers, architects and recyclers, what we’ve found is that everyone wants a product which is easy to recycle.

And what other trends are being demanded by everyone along the value chain?

A key concept is the ‘green building’ one.

If you look at flooring specifically, one key driver is low VOC (volatile organic compound). Basically you want your flooring to be low odour. Similarly, manufacturers of extruded gaskets are looking for excellent crack resistance, due to the repetitive nature of their use. Again, in our molecular architecture studies we are developing molecules that can enable these improvements. All of this is developed in conjunction with our partners – and I don’t just mean our materials partners. I also mean our material partners, designers, architects and research institutes. For us, it is important to work very closely with a range of partners. We are an enabler, and we work closely with the entire value chain.

Dow Elastomers Email: dowelastomers@dow.com Web: www.dowelastomers.com EPPM 21

contact with drinking water include very low migration values, a high level of taste neutrality and confirmation that long-term contact with the plastic will not cause accelerated algae growth.

Approval for contact with drinking water is required for many components employed in kitchens and bathrooms.

BASF can test customer's components made of the new group of plastics in its own flow laboratory. This is where water meters, pipe fittings and other parts that carry drinking water can be tested for their long-term resistance against chlorinated water at various temperatures, pressures, pH values and flow rates over the course of thousands of hours.

BASF Tel: +49 621 60 43348 Email: sabine.philipp@basf.com Web: www.basf.com

MATERIALS ROUNDUP eppm

INDUSTRY NEWS

Bio-based TPEs to be Strong Focus at Fourteenth International Thermoplastic Elastomers Conference Smithers Rapra has announced the agenda for its renowned international conference on thermoplastic elastomers.

The fourteenth annual event will take place in Berlin on 13-14 November gathering together the industry’s leading material manufacturers, compounders, tier one and two suppliers and end users of thermoplastic elastomers. The programme of world class speakers will cover a range of materials under the TPE umbrella including TPUs, TPVs, TPOs, EPDM and styrenic block copolymers.

Among the panel of presenters, Peter Seiler, Principal Materials Engineer at Medtronic Inc will share TPE material requirements as a medical device manufacturer — now and in the future.

Papers will follow from Mario Kroger of German-based nora systems GmbH on a new range of TPE based shoe insole materials with improved cushioning and damping properties; Kraiburg’s Dr Martin Geissinger will present a paper on high performance TPVs for a variety of applications and Dennis Siepmann of Actega DS GmbH will give an insight to styrenic thermoplastic elastomers and their uses in food packaging as well as the medical and pharmaceutical industry. As one would expect there will also be a heavy emphasis on TPE materials for use in automotive applications with industry giants PolyOne Corporation/GLS, Enplast and Teknor Apex delivering technical papers on new product lines within this fast moving sector.

This year the conference also features a session dedicated to TPEs with significant bio-content, testament to the fact that the TPE industry is no exception in the move towards more sustainable programmes. TPE technologies based on bio-renewable resources will be the focus of papers from Arkema, Cereplast Inc, Tecnaro GmbH and Merquinsa/Lubrizol Advanced Materials Manufacturing who will announce developments in PPA based materials, novel-starch filled thermoplastics and in TPU solutions for pneumatic tubing.

ExxonMobil Chemical Introduces New Lighter Weight Label-Lyte OPP Film ExxonMobil Chemical has introduced new Label-Lyte 40LL539 OPP film, a clear, twoside-coated film that allows downgauging opportunities for lighter weight labels with a glossy “no label” look.

It has been designed for demanding pressure sensitive label (PSL) applications which require outstanding ink adhesion and adhesive anchorage. These include beverages (alcoholic, carbonated, mineral waters), health and beauty products, pharmaceuticals, general consumer goods, household products, pet food and other diverse markets.

The coated print surface of this new film is compatible with UV, flexo, letterpress, screen and offset systems. The film is also compatible with solvent- and water-based flexo and solvent-based gravure, and hot and cold foil stamping.

ExxonMobil Chemical Web: www.exxonmobilchemical.com

Polyethylene Bearing Grade Gives Conveying Systems a Performance, Cost And Safety Boost TIVAR HPV from Quadrant is an ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMW-PE) developed specifically for wear components subject to challenging production environments, such as high speeds, high temperatures, high loads and aggressive cleaning agents. It is food contact compliant and available as semi-finished material and custom machined parts.

TIVAR HPV has an innovative, built-in dry lubricant which gives it a Limiting Pressure Velocity (LPV) value 18% higher than competitive material, resulting in reduced pressure sensitivity for finished parts. POM-C counterplate tests by Quadrant indicate that TIVAR HPV offers the lowest coefficient of friction (COF) value on the market, with a reduction of up to 80% in comparison to other UHMW-PE materials.

As a result, components made with TIVAR HPV show improved sliding behaviour and high wear and abrasion resistance. This avoids excessive wear and deformation of parts to support the longest possible lifecycle in conveyors, and allow cost, time and safety benefits.

New TIVAR HPV is suitable for all touch points in a conveyor system where friction and wear appears, such as chain guides, sliding strips and guides, rollers,

Source: Quadrant Lab Tests.

single and multiple corner wear bends, and straight guides. As a fully certified Food Contact compliant material, it enables system operators to build-up a production line in accordance with the latest Food Regulation requirements.

The superior sliding performance reduces friction of components against a mating partner. From a cost perspective, this reduces energy use as considerably less drive is required to push the system. It also better protects parts from wear, in particular expensive sliding partners such as chains and belts, leading to a reduction in the purchasing

Thermoplastic Elastomers 2012 Tel: +44 1939 252460 Email: areeves@smithers.com Web: www.tpe-conference.com

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and installation of replacement parts.

Longer performance periods without maintenance improve the overall safety of the system for operators.

The sliding advantage generates smoother, quieter operation without the need for external lubricants such as oil and grease, protecting the environment and reducing noise pollution from the equipment.

Quadrant Tel: +41 62 885 84 43 Email: sigrid.dopfer@qplas.com Web: www.quadrantplastics.com

SHOWCASE CAPS & CLOSURES Purgex Provides Rapid Colour Changes When Moulding Caps and Closures

Manufacturing plastic caps, plugs, and other closures can require frequent colour changes for injection moulders. This can lead to excessive downtime, high scrap rates, and wasting otherwise usable resin in order to purge the previous colour from the system.

Changing from a dark to light colour is typically the most troublesome for moulders.

Purgex commercial purging compounds (CPC) are chemical-mechanical formulations used to change colours faster and more thoroughly compared to using in-house resins and regrinds to purge. Purgex also removes inclusions and contaminants (e.g. black specks). The results are reduced downtime, lower scrap rates, and less use of virgin resin when purging injection moulding machinery. This also decreases

overall operating costs while increasing productivity for manufacturers of plastic caps and closures.

All Purgex grades use ingredients that are non-toxic and USA-FDA approved for food, pharmaceutical and medical plastics use. Purgex is safe to use in hot runner systems with gates as small as 75mm and has a variety of grades available to clean filled or unfilled resins from machinery at processing temperatures ranging from 138˚C to 316˚C. Purgex division of Neutrex, Inc. Tel: +1 281 807 9449 Email: global@purgexonline.com Web: www.purgexonline.com

Elasto Müller Kunststoffe Expands in Caps and Closures Market Elasto Müller Kunststoffe, the TPE division of Hexpol has announced that it has agreed a deal to take over the business activities of European Plastic Sealants (EPS) based in Sottrum, Germany.

EPS is specialised in the development of compounds for caps and closures. Sales are worldwide to a range of closure markets including beverage sealants in crown corks, aluminium and plastic closures. The deal comes after several years of successful cooperation between Müller Kunststoffe and EPS. The business activities, product development and sales will be now be managed by a newly created ‘Caps and Closures’ department within Elasto Müller Kunststoffe. Raymond Exon, CEO at EPS will remain as caps and closures product manager for Elasto Müller Kunststoffe.

Commenting on the deal, Carsten Rüter, Hexpol Compounding’s president global purchasing and technology said, “I am delighted we have been able to agree this deal with EPS with its leading position in the caps and closure market. The business will complement our existing position in custom TPE and complimentary compounds and provide excellent opportunities for growth”.

“We are also pleased to continue working with Exon, he is well known in the industry, and his knowledge EPPM 24

will be invaluable to our customers. He will be working with our teams in Germany, UK, Sweden and China to establish a full product portfolio of TPE compounds for many caps and closure applications. We believe that the business development in this area will be very positive in the coming months and years. We expect to see some good opportunities for the group in the near future”, concluded Ralph Wolkener, president Europe and Asia at Hexpol Compounding.

Elasto Müller Kunststoffe Tel: +49 9571 94894 0 Email: info@mueller-kunststoffe.com Web: www.mueller-kunststoffe.com

FAKUMA 2012 PREVIEW

Fakuma to Flourish in Friedrichshafen

Hasco to Present Mould Base and Hot Runner Developments at Fakuma

As the key European plastics technology event of 2012, the Fakuma international trade fair for plastics processing is seeing a “catapulted” growth this year, according to organiser P. E. Schall GmbH & Co. KG, with well over 1200 exhibitors signed up. The latest official release states that almost all of the capacity at the recently expanded trade fair centre in Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance has already been fully booked.

Schall claims that one reason for the strong stand sales is the show’s location in the high-tech industrial region on Lake Constance, where Germany, Austria and Switzerland meet.

Friedrichshafen is located in the heart of Europe and is now easier than ever to get to thanks to good, recently improved roads, and excellent railway and flight connections.

Asian and American manufacturers and distributors of plastics processing machines and periphery systems have long since seen Fakuma as a springboard for their marketing activities in Europe and the rest of the world; in this respect, the African continent is at the forefront and is evolving into a more and more interesting production and sales market.

The following pages will preview some of the highlights on show at this year’s event. Next issue will conclude our Fakuma preview series, and will be available onsite.

Fakuma 2012 Tel: +49 7025 92060 Email: info@schall-messen.de Web: www.schall-messen.de

Kraussmaffei to Introduce Latest Machine Series at Fakuma KraussMaffei has announced it will display its most recent addition to its machine portfolio, the GX series, at Fakuma 2012, with a focus on efficiency.

At the trade fair, the company will produce a thermoplastic lightweight part in CellForm technology (MuCell) for the automotive industry using a GX 4503000.

KraussMaffei states the entire production cell will demonstrate maximum productivity and innovative detailed solutions for zero defect production and production intelligence.

“When combined with a MuCell equipment package and the precise injection and plasticising unit, the GX series is almost predestined for processreliable production of foamed parts,” said Dr. Bourdon, Vice President Technologies at KraussMaffei. “This automotive application shows the enormous potential still contained in lightweight thermoplastic solutions.”

The high shot weight constancy of less than +/- 0.1% ensures reliable production, even with high demands.

KraussMaffei states that as the fastest dual platen machine on the market, the

GX offers short travel times and maximum productivity. The smoothrunning mechanics are claimed to reduce traction resistance by up to 80% and ensure, together with the hydraulic concept designed for minimum flow losses, maximum energy efficiency.

Completely automatic production takes place in a fully integrated production cell, with a LRX 250 linear robot that is fitted with the handheld pendant of the

new MC6 control system. “The robot is fully integrated both in the control system and the mechanics,” explained Frank Peters, Vice President Sales at KraussMaffei.

KraussMaffei - Hall A7, Stand 7303 Tel: +49 89 8899 4712 Email: markus.betsche@kraussmaffei.com Web: www.kraussmaffei.com

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The Mould Base and Hot Runner Divisions of mould manufacturer and hot runner specialist Hasco from Germany will present brand new technologies to increase productivity and efficiency for tool and mould design at Fakuma this year.

The Mould Base Division will display a completely new system for quick-change mould systems. The focus will be on prototype tools and small-scale series.

Compared with previous quick-change moulds, this mould base concept offers advantages due to the fact that the plate geometries can now be utilised to a greater extent.

Other highlights include a range of improved tempering connections and the new Tempflex, which enables tempering to take place flexibly in the mould, at the point where traditional drilling reaches its limits. There are also improvements to the range of slides and to the thread demoulding process.

The Hot Runner Division will display various nozzle variants and side gating as well as a newly developed needle closure nozzle called the “Valve Gate Shot” for the packaging sector. This is reported to be both process-optimised and service-friendly, at a competitive price.

A hydraulically-operated cylinder for moving needle valve packages makes the systems even more maintenancefriendly because they can be dismantled without the hydraulic drive unit having to be exposed.

This protects both the system and the surrounding environment from being soiled by hydraulic oil.

The drive unit portfolio is rounded off by a modular range of needle valves for individual pneumatic and hydraulic control in different housing variants. A central operator unit will be presented alongside an improvement to the product.

Hasco - Hall A2, Stand 2202 Tel: +49 2351 9570 Email: info@hasco.com Web: www.hasco.com

FAKUMA 2012 PREVIEW Sepro Partners with Stäubli to Deliver 5- and 6-Axis Robots for Injection Moulding Plastics processors with applications requiring fast, precise multi-axis parts manipulation, now can choose 5- and 6axis robots that have been configured specifically injection moulding. Sepro Robotique, in partnership with Stäubli Robotics, will introduce the new designs at Fakuma 2012. Sepro will demonstrate two examples of the new product lines: • The 5X Line featuring a 3-axis Cartesian beam robot equipped with a Stäubli 2axis wrist • The 6X Visual Line of articulated-arm robots manufactured by Stäubli for Sepro.

Both units will be controlled by the Visual 3 control from Sepro, which was developed especially for injection moulding and well-known for its simplicity of operation and user-friendliness.

“For years, injection moulders with complex automation requirements have had to make a difficult choice,” explains Jean-Michel Renaudeau, Managing Director of the company, which is headquartered in La Roche sur Yon, France. “They could choose Cartesian beam robots that were designed for their applications but usually limited to 3 primary axes of motion, or they could select a 6-axis polyarticulated robot designed for general industrial applications. Now, thanks to our partnership with Stäubli, they can have the best of both worlds: high-quality multi-axis solutions created with the needs of injection moulders in mind.”

Sepro and Stäubli have been cooperating successfully since 2006, with Sepro integrating the Stäubli multi-axis robots when those capabilities were required.

Now they have taken that relationship a step further.

The 5X Line features Sepro 3-axis Cartesian beam robots with 2-axis Stäubli wrists and the Sepro Visual 3 control. The 5X robots are available in three sizes for injection moulding machines from 30 to 800 tonnes.

The 6X Visual Line of robots combines a Stäubli multi-axis robot with the Sepro Visual 3 control to deliver a generalpurpose automation solution in five models to serve injection moulding machines from 20 to 4000 tonnes.

With Visual 3, Sepro’s proprietary and very adaptable control, it is very simple to program a multi-axis robot on an injection moulding machine. Visual controls make it simple and intuitive to create almost any program, even complex cycles requiring path tracking, flaming, part outlining, and so on. Processors who are already familiar with the Visual control platform will find that very little additional training is required to become proficient at programming multi-axis robots for injection moulding.

Under the partnership agreement, Sepro will provide installation, start-up and repair and maintenance assistance through its global service structure.

“Sepro and Stäubli share strong values,” said Jean-Michel Renaudeau. “We are both committed to advancing technology while delivering quality products and excellent, local service to customers wherever they are in the world.”

Sepro Robotique - Hall A1, Stand 1203 Tel: +33 2 51 45 46 00 Email: sepro@sepro-robotique.com Web: www.sepro-robotique.com

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FAKUMA 2012 PREVIEW motan-colortronic to Focus on PET Recycling

Low weight, combined with high strength and shatter resistance, along with the ecological value of numerous recycling possibilities provides PET with a bright future, as most processors will know. Ancillary equipment group motan-colortronic will look at PET as one of its major focuses for Fakuma 2012.

The crystallisation of amorphous PET is a key element in its preparation before it is processed in preform injection moulding machines and downstream stretch blow moulding machinery, or in sheet or film extrusion lines. Critical points in the crystallisation process are production start-up, agitation of material during its transition phase and dealing with dust. HDC series crystallisers from motan, together with motan LUXORBIN C agitator bins, can reportedly cater for all of these requirements — and in addition offer the processor flexibility through its modular design, easy operation and significant energy savings.

Modularity of the motan HDC crystallisers is represented by the wide range of nine heating modules and their highly efficient heating, blowing and control system functions, which provide throughput performance between 120 and 3,000 m³/h of process

air. The LUXORBIN C agitator bins come with a choice of eight size combinations with bin volumes between 125 and 2,500 litres. This wide range of modules have enabled motan to design its crystalliser product program for hourly throughput quantities ranging from just 80 kg/h all the way up to 900 kg/h. Crystallisation quality is protected in the event of variations of material throughput within each module by automatic control of the material take-off rate. Process security is a top priority and is ensured in motan-colortronic’s equipment by the use of high strength torsion-resistant agitator arms and stators which can withstand the large forces to which they are exposed during the crystallisation process. As a further measure, the agitator motor will automatically switch off in order to prevent damage, should unexpected yet unacceptably high forces arise in the agitator bin.

The frequency-controlled blowers continually adjust the amount of process air according to the input material temperature. The customer has a wide choice of options, as he can also equip his motan crystalliser with a rotary valve to discharge the material, cyclone dust separators and extraction equipment for material re-circulation. But in the standard version the line is already ideally equipped, with an air extraction filter and pneumatically operated slide discharge valve at the bin outlet.

The user-friendly control and monitoring system provides the operator with the best tool to manage the equipment. The touch panel, supported by a Siemens S7 programmable logic controller (PLC) working in the background, guides the operator with its clear selfexplanatory graphic display. Most process parameter values are pre-installed. The operator only needs to enter an easily manageable amount of data relating to the product. Open process management makes a significant contribution towards preventing hydrolytic degradation of the material and low relative humidity of the process air — a particular feature of motancolortronic crystallisers — results in good material drying. An additional advantage with motan crystallisers is that an automatic start-up program for the crystallisation of amorphous PET means that startup of the crystallisation production process if required can be programmed and controlled by the production manager from his office.

Herbold Meckesheim to Offer Multiple Recycling Solutions

Left: Herbold Shredder of the HR 62 P series Middle: Herbold Plastcompactor Right: Herbold Granulator SB series

Herbold Meckesheim GmbH is an experienced full-line provider of recycling technology: from coarse shredders via granulators to pulverisers, as well as complete solutions for the washing and separation of contaminated mixed plastic waste.

At Fakuma, Herbold Meckesheim will showcase the following machine series: • The Plastcompactor HV 50 for compacting films, fibres and foams: this machine can transform flowresistant materials into an agglomerate with high bulk density and good flow characteristics. Typical materials are PA-fibres, PET-flakes and scrap XPSfoams.

• The Shredder HR 62P is rounding off the product range of shredders with a small compact shredder that might be interesting for in-house plastics processing companies with only small quantities of

lumps. Due to its low acquisition costs and its compact design, this machine makes an in-house recycling possible for blow moulding, film and injection moulding shops.

• The Granulator SML 45/60 SB with forced feeding (patent pending): this special granulator design can considerably reduce its energy demand – with a 30 to 50% lower connected load compared to a traditional machine. Pre-shredded waste and hollow bodies can be recycled in a very economic way.

Some 200 machines of this design have already been sold since the market launch.

Herbold Meckesheim GmbH - Hall A6, Stand 6502 Tel: +49 6226 9320 Email: herbold@herbold.com Web: www.herbold.com EPPM 27

Crystallisers are most efficient when running for long periods. Should cleaning or maintenance be required at some time, e.g. due to changes in material or production lots, these can be easily accomplished. The bin cone has been designed so that the lower section can be removed, enabling full and unrestricted access to the lower bin area. The large cross-sectional areas of the lower agitator bearings are ideal for good material flow and subsequent cleaning. motan-colortronic — Hall B1, Stand 1111 Tel: +49 6175 792 214 Email: ruediger.kissinger@motan-colortronic.de Web: www.motan-colortronic.de

FAKUMA 2012 PREVIEW Koch-Technik to Bring Revamped Control Solutions to Fakuma Materials handling specialist KochTechnik has revamped its control technology for central material supply systems. This will be one of the major developments for the group at Fakuma this year. The control system has been upgraded both visually and technically.

The symbols have been adapted for use with an intuitive touch control panel. As with the Koch graphic display software, the entire material supply process, with all its components, has been depicted graphically and adapted for multitouchscreen software. The processor can now monitor and control the system on a portable control module. Simply touch a single component with an associated symbol, for example a feed separator, and all the relevant control and adjustment parameters are displayed. Koch-Technik supplies a modified tablet PC, which functions as a portable control module, and is wirelessly linked to the Siemens PLC control. This mobile touchscreen tablet serves as an extension of the control system for the complete material supply process. The operator can keep an eye on the whole system from anywhere in the production area. It is possible to check material requirements and the activity of the material supply system at a glance. Using the tablet, the operator can also make real-time adjustments there and then to individual components such as material conveyors, vacuum pumps and safety filters.

The Fasti-Koch Micro dryer has now been joined by the Micro+. The upgraded granulate dryer for very small volumes continues the success story of Fasti-Koch models under the umbrella of KochTechnik. The Micro+ is the second dryer, after the Xpert+, to be given a completely new control unit. Both dryers, which use ERD compressed air technology, have been equipped with a control module that can be effortlessly operated with a touch panel. The touch-sensitive display makes

for improved representation and easier operation. The control module brings all the components together. Process parameters such as temperature, drying time and holding times, as well as timer programs and optional dew point recording, can all be adjusted on the display. The integrated database is an extremely useful feature, which can be used to store parameters such as temperature, lowering times and air volume control for the dried material. This data can then be easily retrieved at any time.

During the drying process the control system intelligently adapts the consumption levels to granulate throughput. Energy and compressed air are regulated in proportion to the amount of material, and when throughput is low they are automatically reduced to a minimum. This saves a lot of energy in terms of air consumption while keeping the drying process extremely efficient.

A number of key modifications have also been made to the drying containers. The optimised flow technology now ensures

even better distribution of the dry air. The modular dryer is still based on the same tried-and-tested concept. The pilot module and control unit can be detached from the drying container and mounted on another container or the injection moulding machine in less than a minute thanks to the clip-on technology.

The Fasti-Koch ERD Micro+ and Xpert+ dryers are designed to provide gentle drying of plastics such as ABS, PA and PP. The Micro+ comes with glass drying containers of 0.5 to 3 litres depending on version, while the containers of the Xpert+ are made of durable V2A and come in sizes of 7 to 62 litres. Both dryers feature ERD compressed air technology and combine constant drying performance, user-friendly operation and compact dimensions.

Koch-Technik — Hall A3, Stand 3213 Tel: +49 7231 80090 Email: info@koch-technik.com Web: www.koch-technik.com

New Software for Consistent Mould Part Quality At Fakuma 2012, Engel Austria will demonstrate its new software, which it says guarantees moulded parts of a consistent quality.

Producing moulded parts of a consistently high quality shot-by-shot is the aim of plastic processors, however, this can’t be achieved by using a precise injection moulding machine on its own.

Minor changes in ambient conditions or in raw materials, as well as wear and tear suffered by the mould, also have an affect and can mean that parameters need to be readjusted. Engel states its new iQ weight control software detects these changes automatically and compensates for them in the same shot.

Monitoring of individual screw positions only supplies information on the quality that moulded parts are expected to have under certain conditions. To optimise process consistency, iQ weight control analyses the pressure profile at screw positions in real time during the injection process and compares the measured values with a reference cycle online. The

system then uses this comparison to calculate a new set of highly significant process parameters, which allow changes in melt volume and material viscosity — the two most important factors when it comes to the quality of moulded parts — to be detected immediately. If there are deviations from the set values, the relevant process parameters will be readjusted automatically. iQ weight control is integrated into the CC 200 control unit of Engel injection moulding machines. As the system automatically analyses and controls the process in real time, changes are counterbalanced before rejects can be produced. The software is also said to reduce the amount of work for the machine operator.

Engel Austria GmbH — Hall A5, Stand 5204 Tel: +43 50 620 0 Email: sales@engel.at Web: www.engel.at

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FAKUMA 2012 PREVIEW 3D Measurement Technologies Developed for the Plastics Industry Creaform, a manufacturer of portable 3D measurement technologies and 3D engineering services, will be exhibiting for the first time at Fakuma and presenting its 3D measurement solutions for the plastics industry.

Manufacturers using moulds and dies production methods such as stamping, casting and plastic injection must deal with physical phenomena like shrinkage and spring back effect, which complicates the match with the CAD geometry. Complete surface measurement of the parts and its tooling through 3D scanning can actually help in assessing to which extent the phenomena are impacting the part. Results obtained through the 3D scan provides good insight during the tooling iterative design process, while accurately monitoring the die and mould geometry and the corresponding produced parts will help in reducing the number of design iterations and producing parts that will perfectly match the CAD reference.

Creaform’s portable 3D measuring technologies capture the dimensions and

shapes of plastic moulds and prototypes with high accuracy and give all necessary information required for the manufacturing or modification of the plastic part. The Handyscan 3D portable 3D scanner, the MetraSCAN 3D optical CMM scanner and the HandyPROBE portable CMM all produce accurate, repeatable and high-resolution 3D data. They also provide complete and accurate .stl models, regardless of the measurement environment.

Even shiny plastic parts can be easily digitized with the MetraSCAN 3D. Creaform - HALL b3, STAND 3223 Tel: +49 711 1856 8030 Email: request@creaform3d.com Web: www.creaform3d.com

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FAKUMA 2012 PREVIEW Arburg to be Model of Efficiency at Fakuma Efficiency will once again be a key focus for Arburg at Fakuma this year. Highlights will include particle-foam composite injection moulding (PCIM), long-fibre direct injection moulding and inline printing. Furthermore, there are new features in the area of efficient machine technology, such as the new electric Allrounder 630 A, the productivity package for the Golden Edition series and the servo-hydraulic drive concept for the large Allrounders of the S series. Over 20 Allrounders will be on display at the show (taking into account machines running on other exhibitors’ stands).

“In order to recognise and exploit the full potential for increasing production efficiency, it is important to consider the entire value-added chain,” emphasised Michael Hehl, Managing Partner and Spokesperson for the Arburg Management Team. “That is why we are not only presenting a representative cross-section of our range of products and applications at the Fakuma, but also emphasising the advantages of each exhibit in terms of production efficiency.”

Arburg will present its new “long-fibre direct injection moulding” process developed together with German Plastics Center SKZ in Würzburg. The process allows inline feeding and enables longer fibres than ever before to be processed, so that lightweight injection moulded parts with thin walls and high strength can be produced.

Particle-foam composite injection moulding (PCIM) is a joint project with Krallmann and Ruch Novaplast in which a foamed part is combined with plastic for the first time. The two components are bonded, so that there is no need for subsequent assembly steps and a finished part is produced in a single step. This production of composite components made from particle foam and injection moulded plastic opens up a whole field of new options for the electric mobility, lightweight construction and insulation sectors.

Efficiency through product design and process integration will feature on a production cell with an inline printing system. This “Inkbot” process from FPT Robotik combines digital printing and robotics and enables parts with irregular geometries and curves to be printed on.

This means that customised injection-moulded parts can be produced fully automatically in a single step.

The integrated finishing process for the plastic parts means that injection moulders can increase their added value and respond quickly to new demands in relation to changes of motif.

The electric Alldrive series, designed chiefly for high-end applications with high demands on cycle time, precision and energy efficiency, will also feature at Fakuma. The Allrounder 630 A with a clamping force of 2,500 kN and a size 1300 injection unit is new to the range. The new machine size refines the gradation of the electric series in terms of clamping force and performance. This makes it possible to precisely tailor the machine to the application, which is a major factor in the efficient production of moulded parts. Moreover, the generously dimensioned housing of the clamping unit on the new machine offers plenty of space for media supply lines and complex moulds. Free accessibility from above makes the machines easier and faster to set up, according to Arburg.

The potential of hydraulic machines to increase efficiency will be demonstrated by Arburg at Fakuma on the basis of two new features: the productivity package for the Golden Edition machine series and the servohydraulic drive concept for the large Allrounders of the S series.

The productivity package for the Allrounder Golden Edition consists of the Arburg energy-saving system (AES) with variable speed pump drive and a watercooled drive motor. The advantages here are a

EPPM 31

reduction in energy requirements by up to 20 percent, five percent shorter dry run times and minimised emissions.

The servo-hydraulic drive concept enables energy savings of up to 50% on the large Allrounders of the S series. Other benefits include minimal machine cooling and a low noise level.

Arburg - Hall A3, Stand 3101 Tel: +49 7446 333259 Email: contact@arburg.com Web: www.arburg.com

Food Grade Recovery of Post-Consumer HDPE Milk Bottles

THE GREEN ROOM

Most plastic applications generate scrap and waste in one form or another. Next Generation Recyclingmaschinen GmbH has taken advantage of the growing use of bioplastics. Production waste can be melt lumps, sprues and defective parts in injection moulding, parison waste in blow moulding or for example edge trim, cutoffs and off-spec startup material in film and fibre production processes.

NGR has suggested that its new technology can only gain importance for bioplastics, which often cost as much as €3 per kilogram or even more.

The easiest way of recovering these materials is to shred them to chips and re-feed them into the process together with the new material, but as easy as that is, it can lead to process difficulties like: • Inconsistent feeding performance of the production extruder • Air inclusions in the melt that lead to defects of the finished products • No way of removing process materials like printing inks and similar NGR’s solution involves recycling machines that feed the material to the extruder with an integrated cutter-feeder, which consists of a slow rotating cutter shaft with knives that cut against fixed knives like scissors, and a feeding zone that conveys the material to the extruder without pre-heating it.

The NGR Cutter-Feeder-Extruder can reportedly recycle most of the commonly used bioplastics, such as starch or PLA-based products. The screws, vacuum vent and melt filter can all be tailored to the special requirements of bioplastics, for example low heating of the material or the removing of printing inks.

This method is also sensitive towards monitoring slight changes in the molecular mass distribution resulting from the inevitable heat stress in any polymer processing step.

Austrian company Starlinger viscotec has received FDA approval for its deCON decontamination dryer to make food grade flakes from post-consumer recycled HDPE milk bottles. The cleaning efficiency of the deCON enables the re-use of PCR HDPE for food packaging applications under conditions E through G. Due to its higher diffusion and sorption behaviour, PCR HDPE faces even stricter safety criteria than PCR PET. Hence, a prerequisite for the production of food grade HDPE is a strictly defined input material stream. The Starlinger LNO (Letter of Non-Objection) is based on PCR HDPE milk bottles with sorting purity of >99%. The LNO is granted for the use of up to 50% of recyclate content in the HDPE container. The super-clean rHDPE flakes can be used for containers for fresh milk, juices, meat trays, and similar products under conditions E through G (i.e. room temperature filled and stored, refrigerated storage, and frozen storage). rHDPE is a promising market within the food packaging industry. In the UK, 122,000 tonnes of HDPE milk bottles were consumed in 2010 and 93,000 tonnes were collected for recycling, generating a recycling rate of 76%. Nevertheless, 22,700 tonnes of HDPE milk bottles were still landfilled that year (figures supplied by Recoup).

Starlinger viscotec (the solid state polycondensation division of Starlinger) has 7 years of experience in decontamination and IV-increase of post-consumer PET material, and has already sold two deCON modules for food grade recovery of PCR HDPE. Due to the sophisticated technology of the viscotec equipment, cleaning efficiencies of around 99.9 % are achieved, which makes the recyclate comparable with virgin material. Food grade without compromise according to EFSA and FDA is the premise.

The solid state reactor viscoSTAR processes pellets and flakes and can be installed in front of a production extruder, after a pelletising line, or as a stand-alone unit. The decontamination dryer deCON can be used to make recycled bottles into dry, food-grade PET or HDPE, to feed a production extruder or as a standalone unit.

Next Generation Recyclingmaschinen GmbH Tel: +43 7233 701070 Email: info@ngr.at Web: www.ngr.at

Starlinger Tel: +43 732 890121 Email: viscotec.sales@starlinger.com Web: www.viscotec.at

NGR Develops Effective Solution for Bioplastic Recycling

Polymer Sorting for the Plastics Recycling Industry

At an early stage in the process, plastics recyclers need a reliable method of sorting different polymers in a mixed material stream to provide a high quality, single polymer output. The VARISORT N from S+S Inspection, part of the world leading S+S Separation and Sorting Group, is used by the leading plastics recycling companies to produce high purity polymers.

The VARISORT N is a complete integrated system and the key to its effectiveness is a combination of robust mechanical design, a full array of Near Infra-Red (NIR) detectors and electronically controlled precision air jet ejection nozzles to identify and remove unwanted fractions with the minimum loss of “good” polymer. The feed to the system is a high speed conveyor on which the material is spread evenly with individual bottles and containers singulated before reaching the detector stage where new polymer type identification technology by NIR absorption characteristics identifies material within the mixed material stream.

The NIR detector array evaluates multiple wavelengths providing data for industrial PC–based analysis software, which determines the position of each piece of unwanted material and triggers the precision ejection nozzles at exactly the right time to blow out the contaminant.

Unwanted material is removed with the minimum loss of the required polymer or interruption of the material flow.

Typical applications include removing unwanted material EPPM 32

when recycling PET, HD-PE and lightweight packaging.

The polymers to be rejected from the stream of mixed materials are selected by the user and the self-teach electronics automatically sets the evaluation parameters to ensure that unwanted fractions are removed with pinpoint accuracy.

The modular design using an integrated motor/gearbox drive and precision air injection nozzles contribute to system dependability, minimise maintenance costs and facilitate a wide range of needs to be met economically.

VARISORT systems can be fitted with other sensors for metal and colour separation where required and the provision of an integrated system platform ensures that the product flow being inspected is under control throughout.

S+S Inspection Limited Tel: +44 1489 553740 Email: info@sesotec.co.uk Web: www.sesotec.co.uk

SHOWCASE PLASTICS IN SOLAR POWER New Film with Solarmour Technology The Renolit Group, the leading international manufacturer of high-quality plastic films, is introducing its new calendered film for self adhesive applications, which is designed to reduce the soak temperature and increase fuel economy on vehicle wraps.

It is the result of years of continuous inhouse research and development work aimed at supplying customers in the vinyl industry with top-performing products.

The films with the new Solarmour technology can reportedly reduce temperatures on film surfaces by 29˚F when compared to the standard formulation. It works by reflecting most of the sun’s energy in the infrared band, and this lowers the temperature on film’s surface. With a lower surface temperature, the films have a longer life span and higher durability.

Solarmour films can be processed in the same manner as conventional films and manufactured in gloss or embossed surfaces.

Opaque polymeric formulations as well as “smoked clear” film are also available. All adhesive systems are compatible with Solarmour films, and these high-performing calendered films work for all thicknesses from 60 m (2.4 mil) and above.

“With lower energy consumption and a higher durability, this new technology can help save resources and energy,” said Laura Schied, Marketing Manager at American Renolit Corporation in La Porte, Indiana. “It is the next generation of highperformance films for vehicle wraps and opens up numerous opportunities for other applications.” In addition to vehicle wraps, Solarmour films also boast many applications and can be applied to a wide variety of surfaces, including vending machines, utility vehicles, tanks and silos, facades and ships.

The Renolit Group Tel: +49 6241.303.0 Email: info@renolit.com Web: www.renolit.com

LOOKING FOR PARTNERSHIP IN TUNISIA

A company in Tunisia is looking for a partnership in the Automotive wiring field. Production designed for export.

For this purpose we have a local facility of 10 000 Sqm designed in European norms and can feature an extension up to 40 000 Sqm. The area is 10 Kms far from Monastir airport and 15 Kms from Sousse (Tourist area).

Minimum worker’s salary is 200$ per month. The Tunisian government offers 10 years free taxes.

Languages spoken in Tunisia: French/ English/ Italian.

nabilayed@gmail.com Tel: +21673545314 Mobile: +21698406749

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ADVERTISERS’ INDEX

EPPM CLASSIFIEDS PROCESSING EQUIPMENT

Company

Page

Abbey Masterbatch

21, 35

ACS/Cumberland

TWIN SCREW EXTRUSION SYSTEM

33

Albis UK

20

American Kuhne

2

Amut/Renmar

34

Arburg

14

Bausano

34

Birmingham Granulators

34

Blow Moulding Machinery

34

Boussey Control Europe

34

Dalesway

35

DB Automation

34

Elasto

23

Engel

19

EPPM Online

31

Equipnet

35

Fakuma

30

Hasco

27

Herbold

34

ICS

10

Kammann

15

Krauss Maffei

29

Labfacility

11

Kentya K/TC 60-22 (30kw) Technoplast KT8000-1 Technoplast RZ30-SA-1 Technoplast RZ30-SA-1 Technoplast 8m

Extruder : Table: Haul-off: Saw: Tiptable:

Unused machinery – all offers considered View in storage in Frodsham, Cheshire Tel: 01928 734724 Email: sales@herbold.co.uk

RE-PROCESSING EQUIPMENT Cont’d

Granulators – Shredders – Pulverisers New and second hand systems bought and sold Spares for all machines blowers – cyclones – pipework – conveyors blades – screens Contact: Dick Monkhouse Tel: 01928 734724 Email: sales@herbold.cu.uk

Blow Moulding Machinery Ltd All makes in stock • • • •

Bekum Kautex Battenfeld Magic Automa Others 1/2 ltr - 1000 ltr P.E.T. Lines

STOCK LIST Many machines 1/2-1-2-3-ltr from £4000 Blow moulds 10ml-220ltr over 300 toy moulds Spares, Heads, Screws, Barrels FOR SERVICE - REBUILDS - BREAKDOWNS BD REPAIRS LTD TEL: +44 (0)1767 318910 • FAX: +44 (0)1767 600097 www.blowmachine.com CHILLERS - GRANULATORS - COMPRESSORS MANY INJECTION MACHINES

To Advertise Here...

Lanxess

7

Maguire

17

Maschinenhandel Borowski

35

Mediplas

18

MM Live

8

Mold Masters

30

Moulds Plus

13

Nabil Ayed

33

PET Machinery

36

Plastico Trading

34

Plastic Technologies

35

Purac

1

Purgex

24

Rapid WebSmart

26

Rawmec

35

Smithers Rapra

22

Summit

9, 34

Tappex

34

Timberline Machinery

35

TransXL

35

Vinyl GB

35

Zerma

34

Contact Caroline Plant Tel: +44 (0) 1829 770037 Email: caroline@rapidnews.com

eppm

ANCILLARIES, AUTOMATION & TESTING EQUIPMENT

For further information: T: +44 (0) 1789 206600 F: +44 (0) 1789 206651 E: sales@enquires.co.uk

Renmar Ltd Tel: +44 844 6933225 Email: info@renmarltd.com Web: www.renmarltd.com

Or scan the QR code below:

RE-PROCESSING EQUIPMENT www.tappex.co.uk

Granulators Shredders Pulverisers Blowers-cyclones All spares Contact: Dick Monkhouse Tel: 01928 734724 Email: sales@zerma.co.uk

Summit Recycling Tel: +44 1827 265 800 Email: webinfo@summitsystems.co.uk Web: www.summitsystems.co.uk

EPPM 34

To advertise here please contact Caroline Plant: Tel: +44 (0)1829 770037 Email: caroline@rapidnews.com USED MACHINERY

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EquipNet has been providing asset management sales and solutions to leading corporations in the plastics and chemical industries for more than 12 years. The EquipNet.com MarketPlace is the world’s largest online venue for buying and selling pre-owned manufacturing equipment.

www.EquipNet.com/EPPM Sales@EquipNet.com • Tel: +44.118.901.6161

www.timberlinemachinery.com

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n We Buy Complete Plants n 100 machines in stock

Call Ed Makepeace n Tel: 603-889-7233 (USA) n Fax: 603-889-7300 n tmi@timberlinemachinery.com n www.timberlinemachinery.com

PRINT EQUIPMENT

Maschinenhandel Borowski Used plastic processing machines Injection moulding, blow moulding and accessories Tel. 0049-2173-8950790 Fax 8950799 www.mhborowski.de info@mhborowski.de

EPPM 35

OTHER