TECHNOLOGY | MACHINERY CUTTING
Green way to cut pipe
Sica says it has developed a patented solution to reduce plastic waste during the cutting process – helping companies to ‘go green’. The patented solution cuts and chamfers PVC pipe without removing material. It does this by warming up a portion of the pipe and cutting it with a parting knife. It then creates a bevel by shaping the heated portion, instead of using a chamfer tool – which removes material and creates dust or chips. Sica says this allows a noiseless cut and avoids the need to recycle material. The company has also developed an electric saw for swarfless pipe cutting. �
www.sica-italy.com
MEDICAL Adding extrusion capacity for swab sticks
US-based Teel Plastics recently installed two Davis-Standard extrusion lines to raise its capacity for extruded swab sticks used for Covid-19 testing. In 2020, Teel produced around 500 million swab sticks using both extrusion and injection moulding. Now, a new contract from the US Department of Defense will see it add more capacity – which includes the ability to produce an extra 66m extruded swab sticks per month. In addition, Teel will manufacture profiles for a proprietary respirator device used to treat patients in critical care for Covid-19. These will also be produced on Davis-Standard lines, including a new custom line. “Before the pandemic, we were the only US company to make diagnostic swabs needed for coronavirus testing,” said Christian Herrild, director of growth strategies for Teel. “This required us to react quickly to support the surge in test kits.” Davis-Standard provided a demo line almost immediately – and two additional lines within 10 weeks of the order, he added. �
www.davis-standard.com
40 PIPE & PROFILE EXTRUSION | March 2021
www.pipeandprofile.com LARGE DIAMETER PIPE
New line boosts production of HDPE pipe in Mexico
Policonductos, an HDPE pipe extruder based in San Luis Potosí in Mexico, has begun producing pipes up to 1,600mm in diameter using a new line from Battenfeld-Cincinnati. A key feature of the line is its pipe die, which comes with “the largest adjustable melt gap ever produced” – which the company says enables the production of pipes in a wide range of different diameters without conversion. “We are enthusiastic about the range of options offered by this new line,” said Homero Garza, general manager at Policonductos. “We have been able to expand our product range to include large-diameter pipes, and can now also produce pipe dimensions to individual
customer specifications without any problems.” The line also includes a
SolEX 120 NG extruder, as well as all upstream and downstream components such as gravimetric meter- ing, EAC internal pipe cooling, vacuum tanks, spray cooling baths, haul-off and cutting saw. Policonduc- tos reaches an output of up to 2 tonnes/hour on the line. It makes HDPE pipes with a colour stripe for fresh water supply, sewage disposal
and mining applications, with dimensions ranging from 406 x 12.5mm to 1.651 x 97.1mm. The new line expands the
range of Battenfeld-Cincin- nati’s fast dimension change (FDC) systems. Before, they could produce pipe in three size ranges, with the largest being 400-630mm. With the new pipe die, the first step has now been taken towards making pipes up to 1,600 mm in diameter. �
www.battenfeld-cincinnati.com
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