Dual-Lip Air Ring Simplifies Auto-Profiling

IBC specialists D.R. Joseph Inc. has developed a new automatic-gauge-controlling air ring. The  dual-lip TDK-500 is result of five years of development with D.R. Joseph along with Techflow Design of Mississauga, Ont., and Kündig Control Systems of Ruti, Switzerland. It is reportedly easier to install, operate, modify and maintain than other auto-gauge control air rings on the market. 

The dual-lip TDK-500 is innovate in four areas, D.R. Joseph says:

1. Instant setting lower-lip adjustment technology (patent pending Techflow) completely eliminates the traditional threaded mechanism. Operators can find and secure the perfect lower-lip adjustment in a matter of seconds. The adjustment includes a scaled indicator for SOP purposes. This intuitive design eliminates the intimidation factor of managing bubble stability because operators can quickly “test” the entire setting range within 10 sec. Anyone who has struggled with the endless rotating of the lower lip adjustment can appreciate the instant nature of this setting.

2. Affecting change to the film for consistent gauge control is made more difficult when high performance is also a requirement. The TDK-500 isolates the primary-lip cooling from the gauge-control adjustments made using the secondary lip-cooling air streams. This keeps the bubble locked consistently to the forming cone for all conditions.

The innovated part of this design is the constrained zone design (patent pending Techflow). The air flow from each control zone constrained in an independent channel that extends to just before the secondary lip exit. This eliminates zone cross mixing and provides a more direct and effective control response to the film.

3. Instant access for cleaning the lower lip exit technology (patent pending D.R. Joseph) allows the operator to release the locking feature without tools and safely lift the secondary and cooling collar assembly to a designed cleaning position within the air ring in less than 60 sec. IBC hardware need not be removed. Optional weight reduction is available for easier lifting is available from a 3D printed PC cooling collar (patent pending). Additional 3D printed components are still under development.

4. Instant lip set swapping technology (patent pending D.R. Joseph) allows the primary and secondary lips to be removed and replaced without tools and without lifting the entire air ring off of the die. A time and cost saving measure which expands the versatility of the air ring. For instance, an operator can change the lower lip geometry to provide a custom air flow impingement angle or to handle lower blow-up ratios within 5 min (excluding the time required to remove the IBC exhaust stack).

D.R. Joseph says the air ring will be commercially available in this fall and is designed to be used with the company’s forthcoming InstaGauge auto thickness control system, which also will be introduced at the same time.