Articles

Purging Compounds 29 Mar 2018

Resins & Additives at NPE2018: Spotlight on Performance, Economy, Sustainability

NPE will host lots of news in engineered thermoplastic compounds, customized TPEs, polyolefins for packaging, bioplastics, recycled content compounds, purging agents, 3D printing materials, and a slew of innovative additives.

Molds & Tooling 29 Mar 2018

Tooling: What You Need to Know About Jump Gates

Many molders don’t care for jump gates because they have to process around them. But here are some tricks of the trade.

dies 29 Mar 2018

Extrusion: Why There Are No Truly Universal Dies

Flow characteristics of different polymers vary considerably. So while adjustment features are available, for the most part dies must be designed for an individual polymer.

Injection Know How 29 Mar 2018

Injection Molding: How Backpressure Adjustments Influence Shot Size

Raising backpressure results in increasing shot size, which can cause a host of other problems.

business 29 Mar 2018

A Processor’s Most Important Job, Part 4: Mold Temperature

Engineering polymers require higher mold temperatures to achieve their ideal structure. The temptation to turn down the mold temperatures can hurt part performance.

PET Processing - Extrusion 29 Mar 2018

New Screen Changer Boosts Productivity, Cuts Scrap for Extruder of PET Strapping

Cyklop’s move to a new-model, high-efficiency screen changer reduces number of screen changes and backflush waste while yielding uniform melt flow and high throughputs.

Injection Molding 29 Mar 2018

Paperless ‘Smart Factory’ Based on Automated Production Monitoring

Tier 1 automotive molder’s home-built production-monitoring and ERP systems, designed for “the little guy,” boost its efficiency rating and profits.

Film Extrusion 29 Mar 2018

Extrusion/Compounding at NPE2018: More…More…More!

More speed, flexibility and robustness. Across a gamut of extrusion applications, machine builders are introducing new machinery, components, and systems to dramatically raise the bar on productivity.

NPE 29 Mar 2018

Metal/Plastic Hybrid Molding: Flexible Alternatives for Teletronics

In overmolding of plastic onto electronic components, the goal today is flexibility. Here are three real-world examples of different kinds of modular cell layouts that have been used in production.