technology | Machinery CUTTING
Tubing gets a better cut
Producers of small-diameter medical tubing can automate cut-to-length operations and increase productivity without worrying about cut-quality or particulate contamination, using a new travelling planetary cutter (TPC) from Conair. Unlike a rotary fly-knife
cutter, which chops through tubing in one quick slice, the planetary knife rotates around the tubing, gradually penetrating the wall to yield a precise, square cut without the shattering, whitening or distortion that commonly occurs with other methods. “A rotary cutter can
automate inline cutting of many resins,” said Bob Bessemer, Conair sales manager for medical extrusion. “But for other more brittle materials like crystal polystyrene, high-density polyethylene or highly-filled resins, processors concerned about getting a clean, square end cut had to resort to manual, off-line operations. The Conair TPC units change all that, now making it possible to automate the cutting process of even difficult resins for improved productivity and lower cost without sacrificing quality.” Planetary cutting has been used mainly in larger-diame- ter tubing and pipe. Now, it is possible to handle tubing as small as 0.080in (2.032mm) in diameter, while holding cut-to-length tolerances of ±0.015in (±0.381mm). ❙
www.conairgroup.com
48 DRYING Keeping a constant dew-point
Motan-Colortronic has developed ATTN – an automatic temperature and dew-point control system.
It maintains the dew-point of the granulate being dried constantly to a defined value in line with the process parameters of the part being made. It is now a standard feature throughout the Luxor A range of dryers. ATTN has been designed to maintain a
constant dew-point of the process air for drying
plastic granules. It is generally installed in the dry air generator and can be set to one specific dew-point between -30°C and +5°C. This pre-set dew-point value is then stored and maintained. This principle requires that the amount of moisture in the process return air is higher than the set dew-point. Under normal atmospheric conditions, this is the case with a control dew-point between -30°C and -5°C. ❙
www.motan-colortronic.com
MARKING
Uponor boosts PEX yields with new printing equipment
Plastic pipe manufacturer Uponor says it has increased line yields by 5% after switching to new printing and marking equipment from Videojet Technologies. Uponor selected the
company’s 1610 dual head and 1620 continuous ink jet (CIJ) printers for its cross-linked polyethylene (PEX) piping lines. Videojet’s latest generation
of printers boast a larger variety of inks, which enabled Uponor to focus the printing on its secondary coating lines. Because of efficiencies achieved through the installa- tion on the new printers, Uponor improved uptime while reducing the number of printers needed for upstream operations by almost two- thirds. Cost savings do not end with reducing the number of
PIPE & PROFILE EXTRUSION | March/April 2014
printers. Uponor had also been experiencing ink waste during bottle replacement, including spills and residual ink in the old bottles. Since upgrading, it has seen a 90% reduction in waste associated with printing errors and a 40% savings in ink and make-up costs. This is achieved using Videojet’s self-contained cartridge, which eliminates fluid spills and ensures all fluids drain from the cartridge before replacement. Producing thousands of metres of PEX piping every
day, Uponor had to make sure its product was properly coded. The inks needed to withstand extreme tempera- tures and adhere to extruded pipes throughout their life. “We have partnered with
Videojet for more than 20 years and the ease of integration has been one of the biggest reasons we chose the Videojet solution,” said Brian Czapiga, electrical control engineering supervi- sor at Uponor. ❙
www.videojet.com
www.pipeandprofile.com
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