Auxiliary Equipment (October 01, 2004)

Accurate dosing and quick changeovers

In cases where only a single additive is to be mixed with the resin, a gravimetric blender may not be necessary. Colortronic’s Colorblend is a synchronized, digital dosing system designed to precisely dose plastic additives (either in pellet or powder form) on any plastics processing machine. It is designed for accuracy at low throughputs and has a smaller footprint than a large blender.

Material changes are quick and painless with the incorporation of separate mixing heads for each color. The easily exchangeable mixing heads only take a few seconds to change and allow for a completely clean system. A bank of mixing heads is shown above.

Precise dosing is accomplished using a correctly sized dosing disc in combination with a special DC drive motor and an easy-to-operate control. The Colorblend controllers are connected to the process machine and monitor the screw recovery time for injection molding and injection blow molding, and screw speed for extrusion.

Colortronic 856-312-9600

Ultrasonic welding incorporates tooling protection

Stapla’s new ultrasonic welding system, the K35-XT, combines a rigid cast alloy aluminum column for weld consistency with advanced features, including automatic tooling protection (ATP). Tooling protection is accomplished by having computer control, position sensing and precise servo motor control work together to prevent accidental horn-to-fixture contact.

The K35-XT’s controller ensures consistently high joint strength by automatic compensation for part variation, within tolerances, during the weld cycle. This is achieved by measuring weld depth, referencing tolerance values, and applying a self-calibrated force.

Stapla Ultrasonics Corp. 978-658-9400

Quick change hopper cuts downtime

Brabender Technologie has introduced an Easy Change hopper design for the Flex Wall Plus feeder. Easy Change enables the hopper, screw, tube and ingredient (e.g. pigment) to be removed in seconds and replaced with a different ingredient hopper. The feeder base with loss-in-weight scale, paddles and external motor are left in place.

The Flex Wall Plus feeder offers real mass flow performance and compact shape, in both loss-in-weight and volumetric models.

Brabender Technologie Inc.

905-670-2933