Auxiliaries

Waste is often only tracked within a mold cavity itself—is the part now cooling inside the tool ready to ship or is it scrap? A molder’s investment in material, however, extends over a broader scope of the process, from transferring resin out of the railcar to drying and beyond, reaching all the way to converting bad parts, runners, and sprues into renewed pellets. Out of every 10 lb delivered to your plant, how many pounds do you sell to customers as finished parts?

The manufacturer of assembly automation defended against the downturn of 2008/2009 by expanding, including two acquisitions of robot manufacturers, and now the company is pushing its internal growth with the expansion of its production capacity in its main plant in Germany and its site in Hebron, Kentucky.

Based on statistics recently provided by the plastics and rubber machinery association within German trade group VDMA, the past 10 years have produced one significant winner in the global processing machinery market in terms of export market share gained—China—while the loss of export market share has been shared by a number of countries but felt most harshly in absolute terms in Japan. 

Scheduled to debut at the K 2010 tradeshow this fall are two new devices for laser welding of plastics offering flexibility, faster processing times, and higher seam quality, among other attributes.

India's Deepak Poly Plast and Germany's Pallmann Maschinenfabrik GmbH & Co. KG (Zweibrücken, Germany) have announced a cooperative agreement to create PD Polygrinder Pvt. Ltd. The deal involved the Indian maker of plastic and rubber testing equipment with the German size-reduction specialist, with the joint-venture company to focus on the latter.

The U.S. division of automation, auxiliary, and injection molding machine supplier Wittmann Battenfeld (Torrington, CT) has retained Next Step Communications Inc. (West Newbury, MA) to handle its public relations needs. Founded in 1996, Next Step Communications is a full-service advertising agency that specializes in the plastics and packaging industries. Greg Hannoosh, founder and president of Next Step, said his company will initially work to provide PR services for Wittmann Battenfeld in the U.S.

Less energy use, less time, and less trouble are being promised by Italian machinery manufacturer Moretto with its new Flowmax drying system. The automatic modular systems offer up to 10,000-12,000 kg/hr capacity without requiring either compressed air or cooling water. The manufacturer argues that a modular system composed of multiple dryers is the safer bet for an injection molder than a single large dryer which, if it fails, could then put a halt to a processor's entire operation. 

Spiroflow Systems (Monroe, NC) has boosted its bulk materials handling equipment portfolio and sales reach with the acquisition of fellow bulk material handling technology supplier, Dynamet Conveyors (Kalamazoo, MI). Dynamet's powder-handling product slate includes tubular drag-chain conveyors, flexible-screw conveyors, bulk-bag unloaders, manual dump-bag stations, and pneumatic tilt tables for a variety of industries including food, chemical, pharmaceutical, packaging, and plastics.

Say sayonara to the status quo. A new exercise in mind bending is required in the post-recession era.

Although they won't see commercial introduction until this November and are scheduled for their first tradeshow appearance next month, a new range of 6-axis robots already is being hailed by this manufacturer as the fastest and slimmest of their class.