Special Molding Setup for Materials Test Labs

Materials development and testing laboratories that need to injection mold large numbers of “dogbone”and other test specimens found an unusual solution at the recent K Show in Dusseldorf. Brabender GmbH of Germany demonstrated its new SpeciMold system, which integrates a 25-ton injection press with a 20- to 30-mm twin-screw compounding line and a strand die, water bath, and pelletizer. Developed jointly with the German Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology, SpeciMold diverts a small amount of the melt stream before the die into a reservoir without interrupting the extrusion process. When a full shot has been accumulated, a plunger automatically injects the melt into a quick-change insert mold to produce standard test samples such as tensile or impact test bars, spiral-flow samples, or color chips. A demonstration system will be available at C.W. Brabender Instruments, Inc., S. Hackensack, N.J.