Jan H. Schut
Winders: They're Pushing New Limits In Speed and Tension Control
New-generation winders for blown and cast film are winding bigger, better rolls at higher speeds and lower tension. They've gotten so fast that cast film lines can now realize their full productive potential.
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Composites Show Introduces Reinforcements, Fillers and Additives
Pultrusion, filament winding, SMC, BMC, polymer concrete, and advanced composites are targets for new reinforcing fibers, fabrics, fillers, and other additives introduced at the recent Composites 2003 Show in Anaheim, Calif.
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Composites Show Features Cost-Saving, Low-HAP Materials
Making high-strength composites less expensively was the dominant theme of the recent Composites 2003 Show in Anaheim, Calif., sponsored by the American Composites Manufacturers Association (formerly the Composites Fabricators Association). Among the stars of the show were the vacuum infusion process (VIP), along with a number of new resins—including several non-traditional material chemistries—and new initiators. (New reinforcements, fillers, additives, and equipment will be covered in future articles.)The closed-mold VIP method is attracting a growing following from spray-up fabricators who want to meet the EPA’s MACT (Maximum Achievable Control Technology) standards for hazardous air-pollutant (HAP) emissions, which take effect in 2006.
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Garbage In, Good Plastics Out
Experts consider it the most high-tech recycling plant in the world: Schwarzataler Kunststoff in Germany takes dirty bottles and film from post-consumer recycling and turns them into automotive and other compounds in a fully automated process.
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New Granulators Galore at NPE
Processors with scrap to grind must have noticed the prominence of screenless granulators with distinctive hooked “S-rotor” blades at the NPE show in Chicago.
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The Super-Specialty Side of Thermoforming
Welch Fluorocarbon Inc. in Dover, N.H., produces nothing but tiny, super-thin thermoformed parts for critical applications.
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Breaking Into Medical Films
Producers of barrier food wraps are invading the exclusive club of medical film makers. The new guys are shaking things up by introducing more complex films to cut the cost of medical packaging.
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Building a Business on Energy Savings
Entrepreneur Sven Eckert doesn’t like to waste energy.
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‘Dry Cleaning’ Process Recycles Contaminated Film Without Water
Cleaning contaminated plastic film with water only transfers the contamination from the film to the water.
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NPE News Wrap-Up: Compounding
For nano-, long-glass, and wood composites, exhibitors presented new systems with four screws, tandem twin-screws, and twin-plus-single-screw combinations
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Computer Flow Analysis Helps Develop New Profile Dies Faster
Computational fluid dy namics (CFD), or flow analysis, is routinely applied to dies for cast or blown film.
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NPE News Wrap-Up: Extrusion
Gearless extrusion, cryogenic profile calibration, wireless data communications, and automatic start-up of blown film lines are just a few of the new ways to raise efficiency and output that were highlighted at NPE.
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