Later - PBT - Lati Industria Thermoplastici S.p.A

Kunststoffe international, Central Hub for Digitization in Plastics Processing
...ections, although the basis will also be laid for future integration and testing of 5G technologies. The adaptability of the Smart Factory which needs to be ensured for this will be required for the later, long-term research work, because test rigs and production cells must, depending on the focus of analysis, be set up and combined for the complex cross-process interactions. Communication not only between Machines and Equipment All learning and working activities will be located in the build...

Kunststoffe international, Completely Joined to the Host Computer System
...tem, and the development of interfaces to ERP was trouble-free.” The first step involved networking the Arburg injection molding machines (type: Allrounder) with Böllhoff’s main location in Bielefeld, Germany (Fig. 1). Just a year later, the company was using ALS for its third party injection molding machines, too. In 2016, the metalworking division was added, and materials supply in China in 2018. “Today, around 400 machines and devices are globally connected via ALS at national and internation...

Kunststoffe international, Correctly Assessing the Energy‧Efficiency of Heating Systems
...ses because, although the surface temperatures may be similar, a 5-liter tank has a roughly 50 % larger surface area and that sends energy consumption soaring.” Plus, direct contact with the heat transfer medium means that sooner or later, depending on the water quality, lime-scale will develop, impairing heat transfer and necessitating maintenance of the heating system. Furthermore, the efficiency of the heating system is not the sole determinant of overall efficiency. In fact, it is not how th...

Kunststoffe international, Half a Million More Parts
...after multiple error analyses and various tests, no solution was found with the plastic manufacturer, the material supplier recommended dry ice cleaning from Cold Jet.” Cleaning Effect of the Microparticles Just a short time later, the Teltow facility was testing the Cold Jet i³ MicroClean (Fig. 2), a mobile dry ice cleaning device, in their plastic production. It is a compact, electrical, low-pressure single-hose blast system with patented microparticle shaving technology from dry ice blocks. ...

Kunststoffe international, Medical Applications of Additive ‧Manufacturing
...a, Italy: the Milan-based company Fab Lab set up a polymer 3D printer in the hospital. The hitherto used valves were scanned, and new valves were printed, so the reanimation devices never stopped running. Later, Lonati Spa took over serial production using the polymer laser powder bed melting process in order to print the polyamide parts and supply Italian hospitals. This is known in our industry as “spare parts on demand”: an essential element whenever a solution requiring a specific form is n...

Kunststoffe international, Nozzles Regulate Thickness
...he complex main distributor, fixed capillaries were placed behind these nozzles, which significantly reduced the computing effort for the simulations. In addition, this structure allows the exact recording of the individual volume flows in a later practical test, so that the results of simulation and test can be directly compared. A spiral mandrel distributor, on the other hand, would prevent a clear allocation by superimposing the individual melt flows.In the initial state, the internal diamete...

Kunststoffe international, Paying Attention to Layers in-between
...n head. Here they merge, forming a single multi-layer melt. The material making up the central layer (marked dark blue in Fig. 1) is fed into the center of the co-‧extrusion block; the two adjacent layers (red section in Fig. 1) are inserted laterally, “sandwiching” the former. Lastly, the outer materials are added – again, laterally – in successive stages in order to ensure good adhesion. Note that in Figure 1 the outer materials are represented with two different colors (orange and green) for ...

Kunststoffe international, Quickly and Gently around the Bend
...ted a research project aimed at determining how the hot runner design affects preform quality. There is even a vacuum cleaner for dealing with it: dust generated during production is all too familiar to manufacturers of preforms (the blanks that are later blown into PET bottles). It is created by the degradation of the highly sensitive PET material and decomposition of the molecular chains upon exposure to thermal or mechanical stress. It impedes the piston movement of the needle and must be rem...

Kunststoffe international, Roadmap to the Plastics Industry for 110 Years
...ldest son, whose efforts (with brief interruptions) have covered over half of the present lifespan of the current Kunststoffe journal. Erich, born in 1907, played a supporting role at first, when his father fell ill in 1923, and died a year later. After studying chemistry, he officially took on the position of editor in 1933. Following difficult years, Dr. Erich Escales was able to continue the Kunststoffe tradition again after the Second World War until his death in 1979, offering ‧researchers ...

Kunststoffe international, Runway Lights for the Seat Belt
...nd in doing so, form both the interior and exterior parts in just one process. However, physics thwarted this plan: to keep the area below the just 1.5 mm thick transparent section free (in order that the LED illumination might function here later), an appropriately thin, but 13 mm high contour would have had to be included in the tool. In the course of time, this would deform through the injection pressure of 1800 bar should the flow fronts not always enter simultaneously and with absolute prec...

Kunststoffe international, Starting up under the Shadow of Corona
...ch as the medtech sector? Dr. Glück: I wouldn’t talk of winners. Even companies that are showing a strong peak in demand now and are expected to provide capacities are experiencing a difficult situation. And it can be expected that sooner or later they will have to deal with reduced demand. That is a very difficult balancing act – such demand peaks are certainly very welcome in the short term, but are difficult to manage and usually not sustainable. Prof. Dr. Christian Hopmann (IKV): Even in the...

Kunststoffe international, The Invention of Plastics Recycling
...e sure, no technological solutions were available for this task. Instead, chemists and engineers were called upon to address themselves to this problem [4]. Processing Contaminated PE Film ‧Discontinuously Three years later, in 1975, Krauss-Maffei Austria GmbH, Linz, Austria, at the time an affiliate in the field of extrusion of the Munich machine tool company Krauss-Maffei in Germany introduced the Waschzerglomat WZ 1050, a machine for regenerating contaminated PE film waste [5]. It consisted o...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, 150 Years of SIG: From Freight Car Construction to Packaging Expert
...through tools and apparatus right up to hand guns. SIG also has a tradition of packaging technology, and will be celebrating its 100th year in three years’ time. The first machines were used for packaging chocolate and stock cubes. These were later joined by pastries and butter. Over the years, packaging technology has evolved into a mainstay of the company. The acquisition of PKI Pack- und Klebstoffwerke Linnich in 1989 gave SIG access to liquid food and drinks packaging. In the year 2000, the...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, A Good Simulation is Half-Way to Production
...ng pin. The position and type of gate in the mould was determined from empirical values. As clearly shown in Fig. 2, the gate in this mould is first centred on the thick collar in the middle section of the part. Problems With First Sampling In the later first sampling of the spring pin, it turned out that there were problems filling the part completely and reproducibly. The thin-walled section of the release tongue (lip) could not be properly filled in a stable process. At this stage, the Part...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, A Short Time-To-Market Process
...a direct process from thermoplastics in a few hours. With it important predictions about the final product and also about the series production moulds can be made already in the very early phases of product development. This is important because the later errors occur the more time consuming and expensive they are. For the near production phase Eosint M (manufactured by Eos GmbH, Planegg) produces injection moulds or vulcanisation moulds directly from CAD data for production of series-identical ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Adhesives: What Do Adhesives Accomplish in Practical Processes?
...nding method involves spinning fibres with the adhesive already incorporated. This dispenses with metering and handling problems for the mat or composite manufacturer. Apart from that, the bonding agent is ideally dispersed both in the fibre and later in the composite and, through the two heat exposure steps (during spinning and during compression moulding), probably produces a completely cyclised maleic anhydride ring. Although of little interest in practice, the film stacking process (with fib...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Adjusted Geometries
...can be consistently integrated at this early stage. Involving the simulation early and consistently during development, even before a detailed CAD model is available, prevents time and money from being spent on detailing part areas that might later have to be designed completely differently because of reasons of production. Practical Example A development project with an automotive manufacturer provided an opportunity to put the method into practice. Figure 5 shows the CAD model for the plasti...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Automated Injection Moulding and Welding of Bumpers
...ng and holding-pressure time have elapsed, the injection moulding machine opens and the jointed-arm-robot receives the start signal from the machine control system. It enters the mould region, grips the bumper on the moving mould half, spreads its lateral jaws outwards, lifts the bumper from the injection mould, travels upwards with the bumper out of the mould region and gives the injection moulding machine the signal for the next injection moulding cycle. The entire demoulding operation from th...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Babylonian Confusion?
...dard interface between CAD system and RP equipment in turn uses the STL format, which describes the surface of the solid model by a network of triangles. The precision of the virtual model can be determined, depending on requirements imposed on the later prototype, during conversion into STL data. Data transfer is usually effected by ISDN. Naturally, transfer may also occur via e-mail, FTP or hard copy. Free-form surfaces, especially, may have considerable memory requirements that can take the s...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Blown Film Extrusion Today
...lopments in the area of disk or stacked dies, such as are used by Addex Inc., Hingham, MA/USA, Brampton Engineering, Reifenhäuser and Hosokawa-Alpine for coextrusion of five or more layers. These dies offer the advantages of short melt paths, lateral feed with horizontal manifold system and, as a result, relatively generous space inside the die for internal cooling systems. Other advantages are the relatively easy reconfiguration of the number of layers by installing additional disks and the pos...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Boost for the Economy: Becoming More Competitive through Co-operation
...tion. Based on the pioneering achievements of three companies – Gebrüder Anger, Kremstal, in the field of machine and mould construction, Engel, Schwertberg, in the field of injection moulding machines, and the former Austrian Stickstoffwerke (later called Chemie Linz) – the plastics industry has become an important cornerstone of industry in Upper Austria. 35–40 % of Austria's added value from the plastics industry comes from this region, while the average for all industries is 16–17 % and...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Building: Trends with Polycarbonate Sheets
.... Also an outdoor swimming pool is heated from May to October by means of surplus warm air. Moreover there is the possibility of filling a geothermal energy store with un-used warm air and of using the energy stored there as required at a later time. Due to high savings connected with consequential and operating costs of this project the capital outlays for the hol-low section collector system amortise far faster than with conven-tional oil heating. Only on the few days with extremely cold weat...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Cards are Trumps – Chip Card Bodies for the World Market
...ne who is also ready to take risks. The founder and present Chairman of CircleSmartCard (CSC), Dr. Reinhard Proske, is very familiar with the chip card scene. He spent ten years at Wilden as Managing Director of Wilden Kunststofftechnik, and later at Wilden Engineering & Vertriebsgesellschaft. During this time, Wilden developed, in cooperation with Ferromatik Milacron, a production system for chip cards which, at the end of it all, was unable to make its mark against the established competitors ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Ceramic Injection Moulding in Practice
...ism in the mould comprises mobile cavities, whose opening during injection is controlled by a hydraulic counter-pressure. This prevents free-flow formation and ensures even filling. In the cavities there is a pin of diameter 156µm (–1µm) that later forms the drill hole in the ferrule. The mobile cavities prevent the pin from breaking. A temperature controller with two separate cooling circuits and a temperature accuracy of ±1K is used to keep the mould at a constant temperature. Water is used as...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Cleanroom: Cleanliness is the First Commandment
...e windows are completely processed using the in mould decoration procedure (IMD) while on the other hand undecorated windows are produced, immediately welded and supplied to the follow-up production just in time. The displays can also be decorated later, for instance by stamping. For the director of the competence centre display manufacture the decision for or against one of the procedures depends predominantly on design and functionality considerations. A crucial criterion for acceptance by the...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Colour Variation: Two Components, Four Colours, Five Units
...-component Days in June was the five-component machine for the multi-colour injection moulding of toothbrushes with a soft-touch surface. The premiere of this twin event was attended by 360 international guests from 19 countries and, one week later, by around 200 visitors from Germany. An introductory lecture on the fundamentals of multi-component technology provided the participants with a theoretical overview. After this, the visitors were able to view a total of seven different exhibition mac...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Commercially Highly Attractive
...s found no buyer for Carilon (aliphatic polyketone, PK) and cancelled the PK business under expansion. The enterprise announced construction of a plant for production of PTT (polytrimethylterephthalate), capacity 115 thousand tonnes. The plans were later revised and construction of the plant was stopped. Sumitomo . . . . . . extended a plant belonging to the Japanese PC joint venture with Dow by 10 thousand tonnes. The enterprise wants to create a holding company with Mitsui in which all busine...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Compounding: Flexibility for Compounders
...performed with regard for standard safety factors. Performance enhancements must never take place at the expense of machine availability. Figure 1 shows the first step in the optimisation from the finite element analysis. Several optimisation steps later, the new shaft-hub connection for twin-screw extruders had been created. The new shaft profile (maxxshaft) is the starting point for new areas of output into which compounding extruders can now advance. This technical improvement leads to new s...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Comprehensive Product Range: Advancing into New Dimensions
...he thermoforming mould centres itself automatically and is clamped with vacuum onto the mould table. When the front doors have been closed, the individual functions proceed automatically via the mould changing program. Storage of data to facilitate later start-up has a beneficial effect on set-up times. This is a particular advantage for short production runs where frequent size changes are required. Depending on the thermoforming and transport operation used, the thermoformed parts are transpor...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Control Engineering: New Technical Beginning in Machine Control
... only the pictograms and/or display screen pages that correspond to the existing engineering components in the machine come on the monitor. However, complete functionality is contained in the controller software so that also in the case of later engineering work no special programming is necessary. This high flexibility, both concerning capability characteristics and their combination capability in the production process, were very popular with the users of the controller from the outset. Freed...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Cooling Time Reduction by Foam Injection Moulding: It Can Be Done Faster
...r range. In general, the longitudinal shrinkage in non-foam injection moulding is hindered greatly by the frozen outer layers at the cold mould wall. They are already so strongly solidified shortly after injection that they determine the lateral dimensions. The volume contraction during cooling in the mould acts to an extent of 90–95% in the thickness direction in the case of non-foam injection moulding [4]. If the temperature in the core region is still sufficiently high, the foaming core regio...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Cost Accounting Software: For Users with a Sure Touch
... data, suitability for rough costing and detail costing, the scope for customising as well as documentation and archiving of input data. Since all parameters are stored electronically in a database, users can carry out comparative costings at a later date. Results in Four Steps The costing involves four steps. After entering the type of mould, the user selects the base data, and corrective and additional parameters. The results are then displayed. The software then utilises the specified produc...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Customer-oriented Globalisation: Process Technology as Strategic Instrument for Developing New Markets
...ssor to fully exploit the potential of a high-performance injection moulding machine, he must possess the necessary process know-how. This knowledge must be conveyed through consistent information, thorough training and, later, through in-depth application-specific support. Communication Develops Markets The fairer the cooperation between the machine manufacturer and the processor, the longer lasting it will be. Experience has shown that it is useless to equip a plant with technologies for whi...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Development History of Plastics: Growth through Changing Times
... popular materials in plastics processing. By 1930, 10000 tonnes were being consumed worldwide (Fig.2 [1]). In 1901, Otto Röhm wrote his dissertation on polymerisation products of acrylic acid but it would be many years later (1928) before he was able to file patent applications for this, leading finally to the first casting and injection moulding applications for polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) in 1933 and 1938 respectively. At the start of the 20th century, phenolic resins marked the dawning of...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Die Cutting Equipment for Plastics Processing
...ie cutting systems should offer high versatility when it comes to component exchangeability. Such systems are designed with collectors or for rolling out coil material, etc. and make it possible to change a particular system configuration at a later time. The flexibility of die cut systems is determined to a large extent by the fundamental design of the system. Not only do modular designed systems include flexibility from the beginning; they also allow the use of replacement modules during regul...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Driving the Automotive Industry: Engineering Elastomers
...or example, plans to reduce use of NR by up to 15% over the next four years, based on its experience with SR blends and blend technology. Similar experience and corresponding effects may also be expected sooner or later from manufacturers of technical articles. Complementing the consumption statistics, Table5 shows the production figures for the most important natural rubber-producing countries. India and Vietnam have been pushing ahead rapidly with rubber plantations and production has been gro...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Ecological Beneficial Composites
...gy developed by Schock & Co. GmbH. The core element is a heated metal mould (Fig. 1) consisting of two half moulds built into a press. Several layers of fibre mats are inserted into the lower half mould depending on the desired wall thickness of the later moulded part. Then an appropriate quantity of a low viscous acrylate resin is poured onto the fibre mat and the press is closed. A suitable seal is placed on the rim of the mould, which prevents the binding resin from escaping but lets air out....

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Economical in Long Series
... that they can replace steel or aluminium in structural constructions. Additional advantages result if a thermoplastic matrix is used. The material has a practically unlimited shelf life as well as excellent industrial hygiene. It can be welded and later reformed and it can be recycled to a high degree. However, due to the usually high melt viscosities of thermoplastics fibre impregnation presents a special problem. For this reason so far no economical manufacturing method has been available for...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Editorial: Welcome to the EU
How time flies: On 2 May 1989, Hungary was the first former Eastern bloc country to open its borders. And what difference even such a short a short period makes: only fifteen years later, Hungary is among the eight central and Eastern European countries plustwo Mediterranean islands) to join the European Union. Instead of welcoming this event with appropriate optimism and anticipating the imminent opportunities, apprehension and anxiety about the progressing relocation of jobs to the East are th...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Efficiently Packaged Mineral Water
... devised by BASF [5]. The resultant relative position for each of the alternatives is then noted on an environmental burden axis. The environmental burden axis represents the ecological component of the eco-efficiency portfolio and will be described later. Costing (the economics aspect) is performed with the aid of business and economics models. Depreciation, storage, distribution costs, etc, are also entered into this holistic, life-cycle balance sheet. In the case under consideration, namely m...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Electrical Component Parts: Thermal Metal Spraying of Conductor Lines on Plastic
...nditure in the plastics manufacture. Also here the design of a mould must be adapted for each change of product. Laser structuring can be regarded as an alternative. Here a special plastic is scanned by a laser and thus the surface to be metallised later is correspondingly easily changed. The substrate used must naturally be a special plastic compound that contains appropriate metallisation nuclei. However, for all these approaches for making the structuring flexible the metallisation downstream...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Expansion Injection Moulding: Amazingly Thin
... at this point far from being completely filled, as the local pressure development in the cavity shows: Position DS 2 is reached with a melt pressure in the screw antechamber (DS 1) of just under 850bar, DS 3 is reached a hundredth of a second later at 1900bar in the screw antechamber, and cavity position DS 4 only after the screw has remained at its final position for 0.012s (Dt in Fig.2). After 68ms, the screw has displaced the entire melt volume. More than 75% of this time (47ms) is needed so...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Foaming: Automatic Gasketing in a Five-second Cycle
...at is still the market leader in the European tin-plate industry. - The two-part Fermapor K31 room-temperature-curing PUR foam system revolutionises gasketing in the field of plastics and black-plate packaging lids. The lighting industry later introduces this sealing technology on a large scale. - The company is the world’s first supplier to discontinue the use of chlorinated hydrocarbons as blowing agents for PU foam systems. - Fermadur PU encapsulants replace environmentally harmful epoxy enca...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, For the Car of Tomorrow
...ss windows used in mass production. The first piece of functional integration is a tongue with two circular openings. Using this, a gripper can guide the moulded part through the coating unit without having to grip a part of it that would be visible later. More demanding are moulded-on assembly profiles (title picture), which, in the glass version, have to be applied afterwards and therefore necessitate additional working stages with additional parts. These simple examples demonstrate what is al...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, From Operating Point to Operating Window
...0 DM or more than 40 %. Additionally, the drive with override gear makes it possible to operate the ZSK MEGAcompounder at smaller mains load. Since at extruder start-up only the main motor loads the mains at first and the secondary motor is started later, the initial mains current is substantially smaller than is the case when starting directly with a 7500 kW motor with constant speed. Indispensible for Wide Product Variety For polymerisation plants with broad product palettes a variable-speed...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Fuel Cell for Alternative Propulsion
...drogen storage systems and on the necessary infrastructure. The earlier the fuel cell vehicles attain an adequate operating range, the sooner they will become established on the market. Whatever happens, the decisions on which materials will be used later in mass production are already being made. The Author of this Article Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Frank Reil, born in 1966, is head of Emerging Markets in Marketing & Sales, Europe, at Ticona GmbH, which is part of Celanese AG. Contact: reil@ticona.de F...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Functional Design: Acoustic and Design Concepts for the Engine Compartment
...sembly errors to be reliably excluded (zero error strategy). Mounting and Removing the Engine Covers Other specifications issued by the car manufacturer included the easy, cost-saving mounting and removal of the cover at the factory and also later in order to carry out maintenance jobs at the workshop. To comply with this demand, the normal screws have been replaced by clips. With these elastic rubber fixing elements (quick-clip principle), the engine cover can be mounted and removed without th...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Functional Integration: Packaging Design Between Economy and Creativity
...rials. Here oxygen absorbers will be a substantial market segment of active packaging (Fig.2). In addition there is a multiplicity of new plastics and foils. Demonstrations of feasibility are needed before designing and printing in order to prevent later complaints. A study by Kellog’s clarifies a view of the future: The trend of the already neglected breakfast will strengthen and the number of children not having breakfast is rising drastically. It is important to combat this trend as the acce...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Functional Plastics: Materials Research as Technical Investment
...ge volumes in a relatively short period of time. This is, however, no longer so simple when it comes to new applications for new markets. The previous practice of resin manufacturers to advance the R&D costs and transfer them to the actual material later is possible to only a limited degree in today's cost-oriented material competition. The logical conclusion is customer participation in the R&D costs and, thus, a separation of the development and product costs. New Approach Necessary Does...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Gas-assist Injection Moulding: GAIM: From the Design to Successful Application
...t and gas injection points can be specified. Following this, the fundamental means that exist for influencing the course of the gas bubble by varying the process parameters are discussed. The individual steps will be explained in greater detail at a later stage. Classification of GAIM Parts A number of design strategies providing detailed information on correct part layout have already been compiled to permit the development of moulded parts that suit the requirements of the GAIM process [9]....

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Graphic-based Control Technology: Full Automation of One-component Foaming Lines
...nals in plain language that can be projected in five alternative on-line languages help when locating errors and in their correction. Using breakdown report archives for example also problems that arose during a nightshift can be analysed later without having to interrupt production. Altogether the application covers almost a dozen full format control diagrams. In sum approximately 300 power tags (variables with process relevance) are processed. "Graphic visualisation must lead the frequentl...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Headlamp Bonding: Warm Reactive Bonding
...k-fix” characteristic sometimes leads to poorer wetting of the substrate. At the same time short furnace times and decreased stability limit processing flexibility. Reactive warm melts are applied below 100°C and are described in detail later. Reactive sealing materials are not rubber-like hot melts, which are applied at high temperature (>160°C). Since they do not cross-link hot melts, they remain thermoplastic. In order to prevent resultant creep, mechanical adjustments must be made at...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Heat Treatment: Drying with Infrared Radiation
...vidually and the scrap rate diminished significantly. Airbags International in Great Britain produces airbags and other safety materials from polyamide 66 (PA66). Coating them with silicone reduces surface friction and allows the material to unfold later in a fraction of a second. However, PA66 is hygroscopic, e.g. it draws water out of the environment and may achieve a humidity content from 3 to 5%. Before coating, this percentage has to be reduced to ensure that the silicone adheres well and ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Heating: Natural Gas in Plastics Processing
...o existing techniques. Other new concepts for this branch of industry being jointly developed by machine manufacturers, Ruhrgas AG and various other partners, are currently at different stages of development (more on this subject in a later edition of Kunststoffe plast europe) In future, an increasing number of processes will also become available with natural gas heating systems. The Author Dr.-Ing. Jochen Arthkamp, born in 1965, is head of the “New Technologies” department in technical suppor...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, High Fitting Accuracy
...odating the wing-tip navigation light must be integrated into the structure; in this area, the shaped recess forms an undercut (title photo). - The rear edge of the structure gradually becomes very thin and is closed by a component which is fitted later. Space is very limited in this trailing edge region and the manufactured monolithic structure must take this into account. - The laminate needs to be extensively draped in the high curvature areas of the wing-tip component. Both the material and ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, High Requirements - Low Investment Costs
...ary, one single robot can serve up to four moulds. Smaller mould holders can also be accommodated in feeder systems, in case of few variations in a sort of round table installation. However, if the production must allow for a variety of products or later modifications, the advantages of the flexible feeder system Star Trac come to the fore. Here there is an overhead rail system where the modular construction makes later extension or rebuilding possible. The individual mould holders hung on the r...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, High-grade Bath Concepts: Pampering the Senses
...antage of the polyurethane system (which makes up for the slightly higher material costs) is that the spraying on of the polyurethane sandwich can be completely automated. The full range of models can be saved on computer and called up again later via bar-codes, making for a high level of reproducibility and high throughput. The first step in the new process is to have a robot spray the liquid reaction mix (isocyanate plus polyol) onto the thermoformed tub for the first solid polyurethane layer ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, High-performance plastication: High-speed Screws in Injection Moulding
...the residence time of the melt, and the melting process, are shifted towards the screw tip. When a three-zone screw is used, it must be ensured that the polymer is nevertheless completely melted and the processing temperature is reached (Fig.1). Later melting can sometimes be advantageous by counteracting excessive heating of the polymer. In a barrier screw, later melting represents a serious problem, because the melt has higher solids proportion when it reaches the barrier zone and quickly bloc...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, High-perspective Location
...s facility of Schwarzheide from "Treuhand", the trust agency charged with the privatisation of former state-owned enterprises in East Germany after 1990. To begin with, the existing plants had to be cleaned up and modernised, but only a year later, BASF gave the green light for the first new investments - in the aqueous coating facility. This was followed by further major capital expenditures almost every year: a plant for the production of Styrodor (expanded polystyrene, EPS) and Neopol...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Highlighting the Appeal
...y-enrolled students. Another thing that is certain is that the enjoyment of learning about technical topics has to be promoted at an early age if young people are not to be afraid of opting for technical and natural-science courses later on. Society’s Appreciation of Technology Pupils tend to have a negative impression of technical and natural-science courses, regarding them as strenuous and boring. One of the reasons for this is that schoolchildren do not know enough about the many different...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Highly Filled, Well Dispersed
...lene, and its micronised counterpart, Ceridust 3620, were chosen. Both are non-polar polyethylene waxes and differ only in respect of particle size. The basic formulation is given in Table 1. In the first series of tests the wax content was 30 %. In later tests the effect of wax content was investigated and it was reduced to 20 %. The pigment was phthalocyanine green pigment green 7 (e. g. PV Fast Green GNX produced by Clariant) and this was used at a concentration of 40 %. The amount of carrier...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Hybrid Moulding: Getting the Combination Right
...ently hardened) are notable for their high-quality surfaces, hardness and durability; the knowledge needed for the design fundamentals and processes is available. The drawback of these production methods becomes apparent when changes are needed at a later stage – it is not uncommon to have to completely rebuild the cavity, and that leads to lost time and expense. High-speed cutting can speed up production. Nevertheless, because this method involves mechanical removal of material, it, too, is sus...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Ideal for Laboratory and Production
...sumption. This is an important cost-lowering factor particularly with expensive base materials or with high-quality pigments. The quality of the masterbatches and compounds produced in small quantities corresponds exactly to the quality achieved in later production. All formulations and processing parameters determined on the laboratory machine can be reliably transferred to production machines: With masterbatches the "hit rate" is 99 % while with dyed compounds small corrections are nec...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, In-mould Foil Foaming with PU: Impact Resistant, Light and Economical
Impact Resistant, Light and Economical In-mould Foil Foaming with PU. In-mould foil foaming technology is in the process of entering the field of vehicle bodies. In agricultural vehicles and construction machines moulded parts made of PU strengthened thermoplastic foils are convincing because of their high stability, their extraordinary bearing strength and their especially good economy. Glass fibre reinforced variants have already become generally accepted in some cases as the easier, more ver...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Increased Performance: Micromaster Powers up Extruders
...cifically. The software Starter runs under Windows NT/2000 and offers Plug & Play (Fig.3). Here, parameter lists can be uploaded, modified, saved, downloaded and printed. It is also possible to parametrise the drive offline and to transfer the data later to the frequency inverter. In addition, there are two alternative operator panels available. The Basic Operator Panel (BOP) is used for individual parameter settings, with values and units indicated on the five-digit display. The Advanced Opera...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Inflow Behaviour in Single-screw Extruders
...ned to accommodate different transparent inserts with different feed throats (Fig. 2). Different screw geometries, hopper throats and materials are evaluated as a function of speed. All screws have an external diameter of 50 mm. In order to make the later evaluation of the data more intelligible, we will now briefly explain the kinematic conditions in the screw channel. Normally, the screw filling level f is expressed in terms of the screw channel volume. Because the shape of polymer pellets pre...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Influence of Process Conditions on the End-Use Properties of Injection Mouldings: Material-based Process Control Recommended
...t the internal properties also condition the external ones. The results of the investigation that have been set out would thus suggest that, in future, it will be both advisable and, indeed, necessary to employ process monitoring and, later on, process control, that is focused on the material in order to achieve preventive quality management. Only in this way will it be possible to largely avoid potential damage to moulded parts brought about by inadequate service properties which have resulted ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Infrared Thermography: Recognising the Optimisation Potential in Injection Moulding
...ng from manufacturing the products is generated by mould design, the gating system and the mould’s heat-exchange system [1]. The automotive parts shown in the title picture exhibit typical heating flaws in corner and rib sections [2]. We will talk later about the implications these have for costs. Different Mould-wall Temperatures in the Process It takes a wealth of knowledge and experience to be able to precisely determine cooling times, cycle times and resultant unit costs. The equation for ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Injection Moulding Ceramic Powder
... finer the grains, the greater the strength. Here the grain size concerned is that of the sintered ceramic. Apart from the particle size of the initial powder the sinter process is of particular importance. This aspect will be treated in more detail later. Organic Binders: Fundamentally all injectable melts consist of more than one additive in addition to the ceramic powder. Also each organic component has a characteristic influence both on shaping and on binder removal or the component strengt...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Injection Moulding Machine Control Technology
...ls with time switches and temperature regulators. The first solid-state electronic controls came into use towards the end of this decade. The advantages of transistor technology were first exploited in an injection moulding machine in 1970; one year later the world saw the first programmable injection moulding machine. From this time on, injection moulding technology started to adopt new, more efficient components. By the mid 1970s, the goal was process control. By then, servo valves and ultraso...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Injection Moulding of Long-Fibre-Reinforced Thermoplastics
...e micrograph of a standard tensile stress bar (Fig. 9) shows. During mould filling the outside boundary layer freezes first and grows inward. When the cooling process continues the material shrinks after the melt has stopped moving. Shrinkage begins later in the core than in the boundary layer. Due to the high stiffness of the frozen boundary layer and the supporting effect of the fibre network no material can be added to compensate for the volume shrinkage and voids form in the core. Applicati...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Injection Moulding Simulation: Balancing a Family Mould
...eve Identical End-of-filling Times To ensure that the end of filling coincides in all three sheets, the melt must arrive at the three gates at different times: taking sheet 1 as the basis, the melt must arrive earlier at sheet 2 and later at sheet 3. As the sheets are increasingly filled, these differences at the current flow fronts become less pronounced and have disappeared by the time of complete filling (balanced state). The advance or time lag can be achieved by changing both the lengths a...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Injection Moulding Simulation: Support for Component Development
...sidered. However, in many ways the manufacture is still open. In this way more frequent decisions are made, which causes difficulties in the manufacture. Also the development of the injection mould requires early decisions that are important for the later manufacture. These decisions are based predominantly on experience. However, because the exact conditions of the component production are not yet known at this time, also here again and again there are unsuitable decisions. During manufacture o...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Injection-compression Moulding: Plastic Car Windows on the Advance
...ace of seals. The integration of functional parts such as lights and fixing elements will be possible and, at the same time, the designer has much greater scope with regard to the 3D design. There will be more on this subject in a later edition of Kunststoffe plast europe. Title photo. The unit comprises a two-platen injection moulding machine (clamping force: 20000 kN), a special mould technology developed for the new injection compression process, and a handling robot for removing the parts ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Intelligent Use of Prototypes
...haform, is implemented. For example, completely integrated automotive interior assemblies, such as instrument panels, centre consoles or door linings are supplied ready for installation in the customer’s final assembly process, as in the later series. The Authors of this Article Andreas Daunderer is chairman of Alphaform AG Enabling Technologies & Services, Feldkirchen/ Germany. Claus Hornig is managing director of Alphaform-Claho GmbH, Grainau/Germany. Fig. 1. Prototype rear lights provide a...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Interior Trim Parts made of Plastic: Common Ground between Automotive Technology and Design
...olness and technically attractive materials in the interior, for example parts made of brushed high-grade steel. To this group belongs the accelerator pedal plate (Fig.1). So far such components have been extruded and the high-grade steel framework later attached. In a pilot project for the customer Hella KGaA Hueck & Co, Lippstadt/Germany, Wilden developed a procedure for covering the high-grade steel frameworks directly. The special challenge of the project lay in combining optical high-quali...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Interview: “Faith-healing is not Enough”
...ent, but still accounts for a solid basic turnover. We want to maintain a strong position in our local market. This is also where the technology that is later exported is developed. The German-speaking area is our largest single market, and technologically the most demanding market across our entire product range. Therefore it is essential that we serve it well. Kunststoffe: Are you expecting an additional thrust through the expansion of Europe? Schröder: We will have to wait and see to what ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Interview: “With the Four Pillar Strategy, We Are on the Right Track“
Interview “With the Four Pillar Strategy, We Are on the Right Track“ On the occasion of a press conference held by Degussa AG, Dr. Manfred Spindler, Executive Vice President and Head of the Specialty Polymers Division at Degussa, answered questions about business development and strategy. The interview was carried out by Gudrun Klein, who is responsible for materials and applications at Kunststoffe. Dr. Manfred Spindler about the main reasons for Degussa’s success in global competition Kuns...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Kunststoffe plast europe – the Online Magazine
...ddress so that the article can be sent directly to your mailbox straightaway. You will receive the article in the form of a pdf file within a matter of minutes so that you can either read it on the screen or print it out to read later. You are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe? If you are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe, you can order individual articles from the magazine by e-mail, on account, or you decide to become a member of the readers’ community of Europe’s leadin...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Kunststoffe plast europe – the Online Magazine
...ddress so that the article can be sent directly to your mailbox straightaway. You will receive the article in the form of a pdf file within a matter of minutes so that you can either read it on the screen or print it out to read later. You are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe? If you are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe, you can order individual articles from the magazine by e-mail, on account, or you decide to become a member of the readers’ community of Europe’s leadin...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Kunststoffe plast europe – the Online Magazine
...ddress so that the article can be sent directly to your mailbox straightaway. You will receive the article in the form of a pdf file within a matter of minutes so that you can either read it on the screen or print it out to read later. You are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe? If you are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe, you can order individual articles from the magazine by e-mail, on account, or you decide to become a member of the readers’ community of Europe’s leadin...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Kunststoffe plast europe – the Online Magazine
...ddress so that the article can be sent directly to your mailbox straightaway. You will receive the article in the form of a pdf file within a matter of minutes so that you can either read it on the screen or print it out to read later. You are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe? If you are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe, you can order individual articles from the magazine by e-mail, on account, or you decide to become a member of the readers’ community of Europe’s leadin...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Kunststoffe plast europe - the Online Magazine
... address so that the article can be sent directly to your mailbox straightaway. You will receive the article in the form of a pdf file within a matter of minutes so that you can either read it on the screen or print it out to read later. You are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe? If you are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe, you can order individual articles from the magazine by e-mail, on account, or you decide to become a member of the readers’ community of Europe’s lead...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Kunststoffe plast europe - the Online Magazine
... address so that the article can be sent directly to your mailbox straightaway. You will receive the article in the form of a pdf file within a matter of minutes so that you can either read it on the screen or print it out to read later. You are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe? If you are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe, you can order individual articles from the magazine by e-mail, on account, or you decide to become a member of the readers’ community of Europe’s lea...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Kunststoffe plast europe - the Online Magazine
... address so that the article can be sent directly to your mailbox straightaway. You will receive the article in the form of a pdf file within a matter of minutes so that you can either read it on the screen or print it out to read later. You are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe? If you are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe, you can order individual articles from the magazine by e-mail, on account, or you decide to become a member of the readers’ community of Europe’s lea...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Kunststoffe plast europe - the Online Magazine
... address so that the article can be sent directly to your mailbox straightaway. You will receive the article in the form of a pdf file within a matter of minutes so that you can either read it on the screen or print it out to read later. You are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe? If you are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe, you can order individual articles from the magazine by e-mail, on account, or you decide to become a member of the readers’ community of Europe’s lea...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Kunststoffe plast europe - the Online Magazine
... address so that the article can be sent directly to your mailbox straightaway. You will receive the article in the form of a pdf file within a matter of minutes so that you can either read it on the screen or print it out to read later. You are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe? If you are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe, you can order individual articles from the magazine by e-mail, on account, or you decide to become a member of the readers’ community of Europe’s lead...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Kunststoffe plast europe - the Online Magazine
... address so that the article can be sent directly to your mailbox straightaway. You will receive the article in the form of a pdf file within a matter of minutes so that you can either read it on the screen or print it out to read later. You are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe? If you are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe, you can order individual articles from the magazine by e-mail, on account, or you decide to become a member of the readers’ community of Europe’s lead...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Kunststoffe plast europe - the Online Magazine
... address so that the article can be sent directly to your mailbox straightaway. You will receive the article in the form of a pdf file within a matter of minutes so that you can either read it on the screen or print it out to read later. You are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe? If you are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe, you can order individual articles from the magazine by e-mail, on account, or you decide to become a member of the readers’ community of Europe’s lead...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Kunststoffe plast europe - the Online Magazine
...ddress so that the article can be sent directly to your mailbox straightaway. You will receive the article in the form of a pdf file within a matter of minutes so that you can either read it on the screen or print it out to read later. You are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe? If you are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe, you can order individual articles from the magazine by e-mail, on account, or you decide to become a member of the readers’ community of Europe’s leadin...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Kunststoffe plast europe - the Online Magazine
...ddress so that the article can be sent directly to your mailbox straightaway. You will receive the article in the form of a pdf file within a matter of minutes so that you can either read it on the screen or print it out to read later. You are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe? If you are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe, you can order individual articles from the magazine by e-mail, on account, or you decide to become a member of the readers’ community of Europe’s leadin...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Kunststoffe plast europe - the Online Magazine
...ddress so that the article can be sent directly to your mailbox straightaway. You will receive the article in the form of a pdf file within a matter of minutes so that you can either read it on the screen or print it out to read later. You are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe? If you are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe, you can order individual articles from the magazine by e-mail, on account, or you decide to become a member of the readers’ community of Europe’s leadin...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Kunststoffe plast europe – the Online Magazine
... address so that the article can be sent directly to your mailbox straightaway. You will receive the article in the form of a pdf file within a matter of minutes so that you can either read it on the screen or print it out to read later. You are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe? If you are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe, you can order individual articles from the magazine by e-mail, on account, or you decide to become a member of the readers’ community of Europe’s lea...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Kunststoffe plast europe – the Online Magazine
... address so that the article can be sent directly to your mailbox straightaway. You will receive the article in the form of a pdf file within a matter of minutes so that you can either read it on the screen or print it out to read later. You are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe? If you are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe, you can order individual articles from the magazine by e-mail, on account, or you decide to become a member of the readers’ community of Europe’s lea...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Kunststoffe plast europe – the Online Magazine
... address so that the article can be sent directly to your mailbox straightaway. You will receive the article in the form of a pdf file within a matter of minutes so that you can either read it on the screen or print it out to read later. You are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe? If you are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe, you can order individual articles from the magazine by e-mail, on account, or you decide to become a member of the readers’ community of Europe’s lea...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Kunststoffe plast europe – the Online Magazine
... address so that the article can be sent directly to your mailbox straightaway. You will receive the article in the form of a pdf file within a matter of minutes so that you can either read it on the screen or print it out to read later. You are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe? If you are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe, you can order individual articles from the magazine by e-mail, on account, or you decide to become a member of the readers’ community of Europe’s lea...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Kunststoffe plast europe – the Online Magazine
...ddress so that the article can be sent directly to your mailbox straightaway. You will receive the article in the form of a pdf file within a matter of minutes so that you can either read it on the screen or print it out to read later. You are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe? If you are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe, you can order individual articles from the magazine by e-mail, on account, or you decide to become a member of the readers’ community of Europe’s leadin...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Laser Sintering: Rapid Prototyping on its Way to Series Production
... to withstand more than 20 years of use on a building site under extreme conditions. Finally, the whole project was highly under enormous time pressure, since the original intention was to demonstrate the new product at a tradeshow six weeks later. The service provider was the only one that guaranteed a delivery of 5000 injection mould parts (in the case of the double components even 10 000 parts) within the six weeks demanded. With this offer, he exceeded the competitors by ten weeks. Another a...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Laser Welding: From Concept to Series
...ser welded parts are for example leakproof tightness in relation to water, air or helium, bursting pressures and optically perfect welding seam processes. Usually the conditions, requirements and external influences that the component must withstand later are already well-known in advance. In particular, these criteria are to be examined constantly for their applicability regarding the suitable choice of materials and the final part and welding seam geometries. Production of product requirement ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Less Water
...nt has come up with possible ways of replacing some of the weight-increasing glass fibre reinforcement, while lowering the water absorption at the same time. It involves curing the thermoplastic components during the compounding process so that they later take on the form of a three-dimensional network. The converter can then process the product as a thermoplastic using the injection moulding parameters normally applied for polyamides. Three-dimensional Reinforcement of Polyamides The simpler,...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Lightweight Construction: Hybrid Front-end Combines Contradictions
...art. “It allowed us to calculate various geometrical variations from the start, and to arrive at the most important data within a few days,” reports Dr. Manfred Kampke, development head for this project at Seeber, “The preliminary layout was later confirmed by the much more time-consuming FEA simulation, which can only be carried out after the complete part design.” Comprehensive improvements were made to the original part geometry in the course of the project. The data model was largely re-conc...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Logistics Centres For The Polymer Industry
...the gate. On leaving the site, the truck driver is given the shipping documents after passing over the weighing platform at the gate. With this system, the entire loading operation can be turned around in less than an hour. In planning a silo farm, later capacity upgrades should be taken into account in the arrangement of the conveying equipment and the space reqirement for the silos. This type of silo farm for bulk shipment should logistically be located between the extruder and bagging unit. P...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Lotus-Effect – Now and in the Future
...scovery of PTFE in 1938 by Roy Plunkett, Louis Hartmann developed the first Teflon frying pan back in 1954), this example shows that it often takes innovations a long time to gain broad acceptance in everyday life. And even today, 48 years later, work on improving the Teflon frying pan is still continuing! Lotus-Effect versus “Easyclean” The Teflon frying pan is synonymous with hydrophobic surfaces that are easy to clean and water-repellent. What distinguishes the lotus-effect from an easyclea...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Market and Trends: Nanomaterials: Opportunities and Risks
...ography [4]. An important breakthrough in nanotechnology occurred in 1981 as Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer at IBM in Switzerland opened the door to imaging at atomic dimensions with the scanning tunnel microscope and later with atomic force microscopy (AFM; Fig.3). Both men were honoured for these achievements with the Nobel Prize in physics in 1986. By scanning solid surfaces and registering the interactions of atoms at the tip of the needle with atoms on the solid surface, nanoarchitectures...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Market Report (2): A Year to Forget
...ably lower than in previous years, with virgin material growing by just 1.4%. Growth in the use of recycled materials was hampered by a shortage of recyclable materials in the first few months and then by a decline in the prices of the raw materials later in the year. These are the conclusions reached in a market study conducted by Plastic Consult. The economic situation in Italy continued to deteriorate in 2002. Growth of +0.4% in gross domestic product was more than one percentage point down...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Material Testing: Flexibility in Polymer Research
...hieved by a modular extruder barrel concept. Up to now, cylinders with 4D (or 6D, 8D) have been known. They were and are used in industrial extruders to adapt the processing module provided by the manufacturer to the customer application. Changes later on are impossible or entail vast expenditures. The same can be said for the total length of the processing part. Thermo provides a barrel split horizontally, flexible 4D segments and a piece to extend the processing length from 25 to 40D in order ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Meaningful Aid or Expense?
...t is left to the customer to find out for himself what claims he can believe. In particular, the prospect that now also laymen can improve moulds without difficulty feeds a fear among practising engineers that they can be rationalised away sooner or later. In order to select the correct software for a moulded part the simulation results of different program products are often compared among themselves and with practical results. Particularly with shrinkage and warpage it is usually true that eac...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Means of Process Control
...e quality specifications can be adhered to. The closed-loop control system for the melt bank distribution in the roll gap described in this article is one way to gain better control of the process and enhance product quality both during start-up and later in full-scale operation. The distribution of the melt bank over the width of the roll gap is of decisive importance for the quality of the process and of the produced film/sheet. However, since the film die is generally moved as close as possib...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Metal Injection Moulding: Precision Parts Rapidly and Economically
...d car doors during the auto manufacturing process were produced, since during the various coating and immersion operations the doors, which are already attached to the car body, must be held even though the locks that will be installed later are not present. The special bolts, or transport aids, shown in Fig. 5 meet the requirements associated with the coating process and are produced economically via MIM. Previously, parts were used in this area that were machined, i.e., turned and milled. The ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Minutes of a Development Record: From Zero to the Road in Seven Months
...he goal of releasing two different emotional feelings in the design of the sports car: on the one hand the pure strength that Porsche models radiate, and on the other hand speed, which corresponds rather to the design language of Ferrari. Four weeks later Professor Kelly presented five preliminary designs to the project team. Then the best one had to find its way to three-dimensional reality. A Porsche 911C2Targa from the model series964 was selected as the drivable basis for the sports car stud...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, More Light
...il as the heat transfer medium. Outside the hall is a heat exchanger that heats the oil to temperatures of up to 330°C. The hollow shapes that are produced here can weigh as much as 8kg. The transparent lighting enclosures will later protect the lights in street lamps against the wind and weather. Before rotational moulding, the normal granules have to be ground into powder. “This size-reducing process requires a good deal of know-how”, says Elkamet’s Managing Director, Michael Parsch. “It is vi...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Motor Vehicle Interiors
...exceed the scope of this article. Further concepts were and are being developed by major automobile suppliers not represented at the IAA. For example, the company Peguform/Venture has scheduled an interior study for later this year that will feature innovative application examples for greater safety and comfort in vehicle interiors. Low-odour Materials with Demanding Properties The new materials and manufacturing technologies that are available for realising the ideas and concepts of the motor...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Mould Management in Injection Moulding Operations
.... There are appropriate check lists for examination and maintenance of the moulds in which the criteria to be considered in detail are given. In each case the number of moulded parts is documented in the MMM module so that the mould can be analysed later. Then the mould is stored in the appropriate shelf. If the mould is needed again, then using the MMM module the user can find out where the mould is without a time-consuming search. Quality assurance can intervene at any time in order to book th...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Multi-material Technology: Always One Step Ahead Thanks to Active R&D
...Fig.5). The numerous individual cavities for the TPE elements were sealed by means of mould elements with integrated tolerance compensation. Investigations were planned for using highly filled plastics as alternative, and are to be intensified in a later project phase. Audi expressed the desire to produce the main components of the new solution for the centre part of the new Audi A3 (model 2003) with fibre-reinforced advanced thermoplastics. Seeber Systemtechnik KG, Worms/Germany, was chosen as ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Natural Thermosets
...ficult. The necessary large surplus of cross-linking material and the thus unavoidable content of free formaldehyde decreased the biological degradability of such materials substantially. In addition, they sometimes gave off formaldehyde during use. Later on it has become possible to manufacture cross-linked materials based on gelatine that have the characteristics of conventional thermosetting polymers without impairing their biological degradability through modification of the gelatine or thro...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, New Possibilities for the Injection Moulding of Thin-wall Parts
...th the screw stroke and the stroke of the needle valve nozzle. The blue curve on the right shows the pressure profile in conventional injection moulding. The needle opens at the start of the injection motion. After that, the needle opens later and later. As a result, the pressure increase becomes steeper. The opening of the needle is clearly recognisable from the marked drop in pressure. The pressure then rises again in the subsequent course of the injection phase. The difference between the lef...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Only the Application Determines the Prototype
...d on the end product as gives an appearance to the shape. Such models are used in the early stages of product draughting, for presentations to customers and during the design stage. They enable major design flaws, which could prove costly to rectify later, to be identified more reliably on the screen. Geometrical prototypes serve to test the handling, ease of use and visualisation of the precise shape. The colour and haptic properties of the surface match those of the mass-produced part as close...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Personal Expertise: Trends and Visions in Injection Moulding
...e expertise in the process engineering side of PET preform manufacture (that, at least would be the logical interpretation of the sales figures). The example shows us one of the trends: all-embracing process expertise. I shall go into this later in more detail. Expertise in the Overall Process I would like to begin by dealing with what, in my view, is an unimportant topic even though it is the subject of much discussion, namely the constructional aspect of injection moulding machines. It is qu...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Pipe Extrusion: The Calculation of Spiral Mandrel Dies
...point in the meshes, calculation results are available for further evaluations. This makes it possible to further process the results in one’s own evaluation modules and define new evaluation criteria; these will be explained in more detail in a later article. Calculation of Spiral Mandrels The main task of a spiral mandrel die is to produce a uniform axial volume flow distribution or uniform product wall thickness distribution over the entire circumference, and that with a minimum pressure re...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Pipes Cast in One Die
...about changes in the quality of distribution when the helix angle is altered. To ensure that a spiral mandrel distributor is designed systematically, the helix angle should be specified as early as possible during die design, since every change made later to this parameter generally means that the remaining geometrical parameters have to be reselected. The last key factor affecting overlapping is the length of the spiral mandrel distributor. It is limited by the available space and therefore can...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Plastic-Metal Hybrids
... motor vehicle type and/or class different requirement profiles are defined that necessitate different proposed solutions. In this case costs and mechanical characteristics play important roles in evaluating and classifying the solutions to be used later. The most important requirements on the components are: - stiffness and strength, - energy uptake for crash behaviour, - thermal dimensional stability, - low weight and - possible function integration and thus cost reduction. Different solutions...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Polyethylene (PE-LD, PE-LLD)
...91 g/cm3 were designed for applications where the combination of toughness, abuse resistance, flexibility, sealability and optical properties was appreciated. These resins found applications primarily in the food and specialty packaging segments and later their field of use was extended to general consumer and industrial packaging applications. PE-LLD typically provides enhanced stiffness and tensile strength compared to PE-LD. But these property improvements are achieved at the expense of proce...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Polyphenylene Sulphide (PPS)
... and Hill in 1967, involving the synthesis of para-dichlorobenzene with the aid of sodium sulphide in a polar organic solvent to produce a polymeric powder. The salt that is produced as a result is relatively easy to wash out. A few years later, Phillips Petroleum patented a synthesizing process for obtaining grades with a higher molecular weight, a process that has since been further optimised – in modified form and under license, also by major competitors [1, 2]. Market Shares and Capacities ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Polypropylene
...producer with more than 1.5 million tonnes capacity, just behind then European leader Montell (Himont-Shell JV). DSM took over Vestolen GmbH early 1998 and Dow started mid 1998 its first European PP production unit, located in Schkopau. A few months later, Borealis and PCD joint forces. A new wave of restructuring started early in the new millennium. Basell was formed in October 2000 by combining Targor (PP), Montell (PP) and Elenac (PE). Basell is the leading global PP producer with 2.6 million...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Polypropylene-flax Compounds ...
...ineering. This growth is attributed to the light weight construction potential of this group of materials as well as their high strength and rigidity parameters because composite densities around 1g/cm3 are realisable. During processing and for the later intended purpose also good fire safety and flame resistance as well as appropriate smell and emission behaviours are desirable [1, 2]. The characteristics mentioned must be optimised to extend the area of application of natural fibre polymer com...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Polyurethanes (PU)
...trict pedestrian safety guidelines planned for the near future and, because of the high energy-absorbing efficiency of the PU-EA foams (which work close to the physical optimum), will spare car designers the need to make drastic design modifications later. The PU spray process for the production of stable, lightweight fibre-reinforced structural parts for car interiors is experiencing a rate of growth similar to that of the thin-wall technology. This process is currently being used to mass-produ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Portait: Pointers to the Future
...ecifications for decades, mainly for the automotive sector.” Over the years, the company A. Maier has produced high-precision components for all the key technologies that arose during the various industrial eras – at first from metal, later from plastics, and now from combinations of both. In 1852, when the clock-face painter Andreas Maier established the company, glass and enamel faces were starting to replace the traditional wooden faces on the dials of the Black Forest clocks. This led to the...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Preparation for Painting and Bonding: Inline Surface Modification During Injection Moulding
... polyamide. Automatic Application of the Modifier in the Mould To convert the basic idea into reality, the modifier must be applied, prior to injection moulding, to the locations in the mould where better adhesion characteristics are expected later. To achieve uniform application of the modifier solution, an experimental apparatus was constructed at the Technical University of Chemnitz: a spraying device operated by a pneumatically actuated piston moves into the mould and sprays the cavity as i...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Pressure Vessels: A Question of Curvature
... design method, which is quite unusual for FRP, offers further advantages: the cylindrical cover part can be produced continuously without seams in arbitrary lengths. Owing to the thermoplastic matrix materials cones can be formed on the cylinder later that connect the domes and cylinders reliably and positively. Additionally, the contact points can be connected by welding the material and thus made gas-tight. The new tank construction method entails the risk that the domes can be burst due to a...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Process Comparison: Injection Moulding of Long-glassfibre-reinforced PP
...ibre length. The scatter ranges show the influence of the long glassfibre granule structure (pultruded and sheathed). By contrast, the injection moulding compounder melts the pure matrix material without fibres. The fibres are added to the melt later and are thus exposed to correspondingly less mechanical stress (Fig.7). This method is kinder than melting in the injection-moulding machine and leads to a higher average fibre length. The injection moulding compounder (IMC) offers the option of inc...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Process Comparison: Profitable Injection Moulding with Nitrogen or Water?
...ions. By contrast, it is only six years since the German Institute for Plastics Processing (IKV) in Aachen published the basic developments behind water-assisted injection moulding technology. However, the technology has developed rapidly. Two years later, an early application, a supermarket trolley, was presented. It was followed by mass-produced handles and rod-shaped parts with a large cross-section. In addition, fluid-carrying tubes and pipes, i.e. parts with functional spaces or channels, w...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Process Integration: Short Cycles for Injection Moulded Microfluidics Parts
...ween the channels, the aspect ratio as well as the intended plastic are always crucial for the choice of process. Preferred Materials Material selection depends on the fluids and chemicals with which the plastic component comes into contact in its later application. The selected material should exclude dissolving the plastic, stress cracking or subsequent dimensional changes. Depending upon application also sterilisability and/or transparency can be required. In order to be able to fill microc...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Processing of Thermosetting Resins: Pioneering Spirit Needed for Survival of the Species
...ng machines for processing thermosets. The scope of the program for injection-compression moulding is more comprehensive in the case of all-hydraulic injection moulding machines. More details of the injection-compression technique will be provided later. Influence of Mould-temperature Control Mould-temperature control has a major influence on the quality of the moulded parts. It is therefore vital to have the most uniform surface temperature possible in the cavities. Failure to achieve this wi...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Processing Technologies: Processing Fibre-reinforced Plastics
...wder prepreg machine was designed and built at IVW, which can be used to coat various types of flat textile structures on one or both sides. With the aid of this machine, it is possible to produce powder prepregs at low cost that can later be further processed by different pressing methods into high-performance reinforced composites. A distinction is made here between three process phases: the impregnation phase, the consolidation phase and solidification. During the impregnation phase, the matr...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Product Exhibition: All Nicely Lined Up
...pipe through the special transverse injection head and welded on directly in the vicinity of the calibration section. After being cooled in a bath, the pipe is perforated in the take-off unit at defined points, for the water to drip through later on, and then wound up automatically. Portrait. Hans M. Berlisg, Marketing Director at Cincinnati Extrusion Fig. 1. Parallel twin-screw extruder from the Argos series producing window profiles Fig. 2. An extruder from the Alpha series – more than ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Product Marketing: Global Trends in Packaging Design
...seem unspectacular for a product launch, to make us consider how rigidly particular article combinations are anchored in our offering. Think of the Uhu “Flinke Flasche”. The first liquid adhesive in a dispensing bottle. Years later, we saw the same idea used for a completely different product group. But as a solution to the same problem. How do I dispense a sticky mass neatly and cleanly? This is the “flotte Biene” (“busy bee”) from Langnese Honig. The very similarity between the German names “f...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Production Control: Press Process Transparency
...e Airbus fleet. For increased transparency, reliability and efficiency down the entire production line, a central PC-based HMI system has been in use for about one year. Jürgen Speck The company founded in 1960 as Bölkow Apparatebau Nabern – later also a division of MBB and Deutsche Aerospace Airbus – has established itself as a global player. Having been an independent subsidiary of the EADS Airbus Deutschland, it is now the “Cabin Manufacturing Unit“ within the reorganised Airbus family. S...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Production Methods: Coping with Product Diversity
...had not been achieved. Only a fraction of the original objectives of reducing delivery times by 20% within one year, raising on-time delivery – OTIF (On Time In Full) – from 82% to 93-95%, and increasing productivity by 10 points, was achieved. Later, as sales went up, the rate of compliance with delivery promises fell to around 70%. Re-scheduling was an everyday occurrence, whereupon productivity continued to fall and delivery deadlines were not being met. Key customers became unhappy with the...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Progress in Development: From the Prototype to the Individualised Product
...AG, Feldkirchen/Germany, (Fig. 1) may be regarded as one of the first examples demonstrating these functional applications. With this tank, one could simulate an application under stress from pressure, temperature (80°C) and mechanical forces. Later, this application was performed by a metal casting. At the same time, the manufacturers of SLS materials also refined the associated processes and materials, which resulted in higher accuracy and better surface qualities of the laser sintered compon...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, PVC Processing: The Historical Development of the Counter-rotating Twin-screw Extruder
...50s for extruding powder into a finished pipe in a single working step (Fig. 1) [1]. Almost simultaneously, they also succeeded in solving the problem of how to join pipes by means of plastic. In 1954, Anger developed a Mapre extruder. Just one year later, the first self-developed twin-screw extruders were built. These were 3-section screws (without vent section) and had a length of 12D. After a test period lasting several years, combined with extensive theoretical studies and practical trials a...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Quality Assurance: First-aid Instructions
...amily. In the present example, five main parameters were selected. These parameters were assigned upper and lower limits; within these, equal steps were defined. This procedure is explained in Table1. The settings are given clear abbreviations for later mathematical processing, e.g. A1 = injection rate = 20cm3/s. With these parameters, it is now possible in principle to run all possible combinations of parameters and values: - settings for test 1: A1, B1, C1, D1; - settings for test 2: A2, B1, ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Quality Assurance: Patients Made of Plastic
...3). The advantage of the procedure lies in the fact that the first moulded components can be examined non-destructively. The processing window of the manufacturing procedure can be compiled based on this characteristic and it can be validated at any later time. In the pilot series phase a comparison of an FEM load analysis with inhomogeneous construction parts makes dependable risk assessment possible. Since the original shaped part remains intact, it can be used for specific component examinati...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Quality Management: The Use of CAQ in Medical Technology
... interfaces in real conditions within three days." One Year On ... After four weeks of operation under real conditions and after switching off the previous CAQ system, Spang & Brands began working exclusively with QS-1-2-3-4. A year later, the situation is as follows: - At six CAQ workplaces, machine setters perform the production start-up test, and production employees perform the ongoing production testing in three shifts. The testing covers optical aspects of the manufactured parts (e...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Quality Testing: Criteria for Optical Sheet Inspection
... storage and visualisation. The use of a large number of cameras, for example in the case of large material widths and where there are high demands on resolution, increases the degree of complexity of a system based on intelligent line scan cameras. Later expansion of these systems is simple. Conventional line scan cameras transfer the entire flood of image data to an evaluation computer, which then carries out data reduction and analysis. The evaluation computer must be equipped with special ha...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Reading by Laser
...ic storage began in 1982 with the European launch of the audio CD by Philips and Polygram. The new audio media provided stereo sound with a hitherto unachieved hi-fi quality, realised by a data reading technology based on laser technology. Ten years later, the CD-ROM was introduced, with a format that was ideal for distributing computer programs and games: With its capacity of 650 megabytes, equivalent to more than 450 floppy discs, the CD-ROM became the medium for distributing computer data. Th...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Reliability in Processing
...sly scarcely documented experience and know-how are now explicit and available for improvement of product quality. All values resulting from the inspection planning process are stored, documented accurately and thus available for later evaluation as time series analyses. “Up to now experiences with the solution are very positive, expectations were fulfilled. Inspection planning was clearly simplified. For the quality department this is a clear profit.” Thus Heinz Mack summarises conditions in th...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Retrospective: The Development of Injection Moulding
...ensely growing demand, especially in the “New World”. The American company Phelan and Collander offered a large prize to the individual who invented a substitute for ivory [2, 3]. Feverish activity ensued, and only one year later the printer John Wesley Hyatt produced on an industrial scale the material still called celluloid today from nitrocellulose and camphor. Thus, in 1869 a plastic functioned for the first time as an environment-preserving material, since celluloid saved elephants from ext...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Routes to Microcellular Foam
...nothing new. Nevertheless, new developments in the field of microcellular foams today can lead to new application areas. The differences between these and conventional foams lie primarily in process control. This article, together with one to follow later, takes a look at the principles behind microcellular foams and at the innovative process engineering involved in their production. Increasing predatory pricing competition in plastics manufacturing and processing is making it vital to continu...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, RTM Parts with a Class A Surface
...ly been processed in open moulds. In many cases, a fine coating based on polyester, also known as a gelcoat, is applied or sprayed onto the mould. This can be coloured or can be a so-called industrial gelcoat, which can be readily ground and painted later on. Components with two visible surfaces, however, call for special processing techniques. In the case of thick-walled parts, production can be performed in two moulds, with the two parts subsequently being glued together. In order to save cost...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Screw Concepts: Influence of the Plasticising Unit on the Processing of PET
...e-step process, which involves making the preform and then stretching it biaxially by stretch blow moulding to form the bottle, and on the other, the two-step process, in which the preform is first manufactured by injection moulding, and is then later, in a separate second step, made into a bottle, also by stretch blow moulding. Fig. 1 shows various preforms and the relevant stretch blow moulded PET bottles. With both these processes, the quality requirements in respect of dimensional stability,...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Self-contained Chemical Factory
...y, all energy and data carriers can now be bundled together. The Quadro-Secura BP-N model consists of a rectangular formwork box containing the stainless steel sleeves and associated plastic casing pipes through which the various service lines will later be passed. This not only saves time and money but means that in the outer shell of the building there is only one service entrance instead of several different openings. The product design problem faced by Frank Mendel, the development engineer ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Series Production - Quickly
...4] can likewise be realised with current rapid prototyping technologies. In this way not only concept models, but also models with which first function tests are already possible can be produced generatively. However, increasing requirements in the later phases of the product development require a larger range materials and higher numbers of items. In order to meet these requirements, procedures have been developed that are based on combination of a rapid prototyping technology with a moulding p...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Shopping the Modern Way
...n for very large wall thickness and wall thickness differences. For the chassis (fig. 2) there are altogether six of these dummy cavities: one each at the ends of the four feet and one each at the ends of the two vertical bars on which the basket is later mounted. The nitrogen is injected through two nozzles on the left and on the right in the centre where the two legs and the vertical bars meet. The first design allowed for three gas nozzles per side in order to separately regulate the blow out...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Shorter Cycle Times with Pulsed Cooling?
...es just two pulses for a steady cycle to be obtained. The idea behind pulsed cooling is to cause extensive cooling of the hot melt with cold water in the first part of the cycle followed by reduced cooling – through still water – in the later part of the cycle. Theoretically, this avoids over-cooling of the mould. Computer Experiments Any direct comparison of continuous and pulsed cooling has to compare the change of temperature in the mould over time. Experimental cycle times are merely subje...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Silicones: Preserving a Heritage
...e novel one-pack, easy-to-apply products were hugely successful at the beginning of the 70s for saving natural stone structures from ultimate collapse. To this day, there are no alternatives to ethyl silicate systems for stone conservation. A little later, the first chemical dampproofing agents for combating rising damp appeared. It is now quite conventional to use a silicone-based chemical dampproofing agent for combating rising damp (Fig.1). For some years, water-thinnable silicone microemulsi...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Size Reduction of Thermoplastics by Cutting
...ll the steep increase at the beginning of the cut, when the cutting edge penetrates into the material. However, because of the large radius and small notch effect compared with the sharp knife, the cutting effect of the knife edge starts at a much later time. The material is "squeezed off". It flows under the compressive load of the cutting edge. The forces increase up to a characteristic maximum. A sudden fracture occurs, which in the experiment is manifested acoustically and can be cle...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Software: More Effective Use of FMEA
...ly of first samples and the measurement strategy to adopt during mass production, redundancies were discovered that would have caused major problems and delayed the project had they been discovered later. After the facts have been entered into the FMEA mask, the brainstorming phase is over. Thanks to this spade-work, conducting the analysis is no longer a problem. When “Failures” in the Analysis area is selected, the dialog box shown in Fig.5 appears. Here, the functions defined in the brainsto...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Space Puzzle Moulding: Series Production from Prototype Moulds
...ure. After moulding the production parameters are adjusted and supervised carefully – to satisfy the requirements of quality assurance according to VDA6.4 and also to register the parameters of the production process and to document it for later series production. Mould Change after each Charge After the injection moulding process and after opening the closing unit in each case the complete mould is released and lifted out with the lifting device and hand crane. On a special workbench with a h...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Sports Equipment: Plastics at all Events
...ially pole vaulters. With this discipline, however, it is not only the landing area and run-up track that are high-tech, but also very much the pole itself. At the very beginning, the poles were made of hickory wood, and later of bamboo. In 1957, a new world record of 4.78m was set with an aluminium pole, which was soon beaten by 2cm in 1960 with a steel pole. Shortly afterwards, the record climbed to 4.89m: The era of the glass fibre pole had been rung in – and became the subject of heated deba...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Stabilization - Doping for Recyclates
... fast, reliable appraisal of the ageing resistance under defined application conditions from accelerated trials. In order to take into account as far as possible the various environmental influences, artificial heat ageing was first carried out, and later also artificial weathering, using specimens from the differently restabilized PP recyclate mixture. With the artificial heat ageing, only the material's resistance to thermo-oxidative molecule chain breakdown was examined, whereas with the ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Successfully Introducing New Injection Moulding Technologies
...ology suppliers for injection moulding processing plants are primarily machine manufacturers and mould producers and to a lesser extent also design engineering departments and research institutes, whereby the latter are usually only consulted in the later phases of the technology introduction. There are different alternatives for implementing the production line, sometimes with substantial differences regarding costs, efficiency and risk. The decision analysis method has worked satisfactorily as...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Surface Inspection: Big Brother for Films
...m for liquid packaging however, requires a complete inspection of the entire film width, so as to pinpoint gels, black specs, insects or holes starting from a diameter of 200μm inside the film bubble. These flaws can be removed at a later stage. In most cases, full inspection of the film web is prerequisite for cast or stretch films used in hygiene, medical or food packaging applications, which are designated for post-production labelling, so as to allow immediate interference with the pr...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Surface Technology: In-Line Plasma Processes
Surface Finishing In-Line Plasma Processes Surface Technology. The Openair plasma process has, for some years now, been creating a variety of new applications, especially for the cleaning, activation and coating of moulded parts and film. Now, a modular system has been developed for the in-line pretreatment of PP film that works with flexible widths and allows a high level of activation. Christian Buske Alexander Knospe Plasma – the "fourth state of matter" – describes a materia...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Tailor-made Compression Moulding Process: Automatic Compression Moulding Machines for Powder Materials
...serted into the press in a frame. This device facilitates rapid product changeovers. A suitably prepared adaptor for the mould concerned is also mounted in the press. The actual mould changeover in the adaptor takes place outside of the press at a later time. This makes for faster product changeovers, i.e. higher productivity. The WPA presses guarantee absolutely uniform compression across the entire range of settings. The maximum pressure deviations for start-up and holding period are ±1%. Acc...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Tailor-made Engineering in Increasing Perfection
...s between cavities. To achieve uniform melt distribution, the melt is best distributed as soon as possible after being fed in, i.e. in the zone where the temperature is entirely under control and not later in the gate area, where the melt is exposed to complex temperature influences. Based on the principle of single runners to the gating points, Incoe International, Rödermark, has developed new multi-tip nozzles (Fig.6) comprising two and six feed channels under a common heater, thus guaranteein...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Technological Challenge for Mould Makers: Thin-layer Packs for DVDs and Console Games
...ct that the coolant passes through conformal channels shaped to the geometry of the cavities. The production cell is also equipped with an automatic device that welds a PE film to the outside of the DVD-Safe into which the title page is later inserted. When it leaves the production cell, the product is ready for sale without the need for any post-finishing work. It merely has to be packed and palleted. Short Downtimes through Maintenance-friendly Design The designers at m-mold have focused pa...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, The Handmaster Project
... the project. It is a general phenomenon that the time to market for new products is growing shorter. Consequently, development engineers and designers have to clarify as many questions as possible during the design phase that might affect the mould later. Standard practice would be to draw on experience when positioning the gating point and then to use an experimental mould to determine the optimum position. Nowadays, simulation software allows the best gating point to be found with the aid of ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, The Less Water the Better
...r plastics processing. If it is too high, it may not be possible for the granules to be processed, since the water evaporates during processing and complete mould filling cannot be achieved. This can have consequences for the moulded part at a much later stage, giving it a limited durability, for example. To ensure a constant high quality in the final products, it is thus necessary for the water content of the raw material to be checked and then constantly monitored in the course of production. ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, The Right Strategy Mix: Maintenance in Plastics Processing
...into Preventive Maintenance During the introductory phase of preventive maintenance, expenses will rise initially because prevention represents an investment at the current moment in time. As a result, expenses for eliminating damage at a later point in time are avoided. In order not to overburden existing resources, a small portion should be set aside for preventive maintenance initially. When, over the course of time, these measures start to make a return on investment because damage is occur...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Towards Greater Automation
.... This very long time was the result essentially of process interruptions due to faults in the semi-finished material and long non-productive times during conveying of the tape. However, by optimising the process control system, it became possible later to lower the production time to 12 h. Even longer intentional production interruptions (shift change) did not result in any machine or control faults. In this respect, an additional instrument for process monitoring was created through the accomp...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Transparency in Injection Moulding
...loped in the last few years for the production of optical components. Injection-compression moulding Back in the sixties [2], a special process engineering - injection-compression moulding - was introduced for the manufacture of optical lenses. Later, too [3, 4, 5], this method was repeatedly used [6, 7]. The term injection-compression moulding defines an active movement of various mould sections, activated through suitable mould engineering and/or machine engineering control systems. There ar...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Trends in Plastic Furniture: Designing with Plastic
Trends in Plastic Furniture: Designing with Plastic Back in the sixties, furniture designers eagerly seized on plastic as a symbol of the trendy way of life. They also used it as a provocation against traditional materials like wood. In later years, consumers lost interest in such designs. At this year’s furniture fair in Milan, it was evident that all the big designers had been working with plastic. Are plastics experiencing a new lease of life in furniture design? Gudrun Klein In the six...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Triple Combination
...side of the machine, and handed over to a transfer unit outside. The first end of arm tooling moves into the waiting position. The transfer unit moves along the mould's longitudinal axis and transfers the substrates either immediately or at some later time to the inserting end of arm tooling at the second split level. Once the mould has opened, both end of arm toolings move into the corresponding split levels from a waiting position. End of arm tooling 1 removes the substrates again. End of ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Tubes for Drip Irrigation
...cally evaluate the production and generate a quality protocol for each reel. Any reels with faults are put to one side. Each protocol contains an indication of the exact position of the fault so that the discarded reel can be repaired at a later date. Production of Tubes with Cylindrical Drippers This technique was described in the first patents [6] as early as the 1970s. The production process described there has basically stayed the same as it was then, with no major changes. Only in rare c...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Turbocharged Engines: Plastic Solution for Supercharged Air Pipes
...out difficulty. In addition, an even distribution of the wall thickness can be achieved with the pipes. The fast pipe output and the minimal pre-contact with the mould provide for optimal article surfaces. Since no mash welds form at which later damage could develop, a longer lifetime of the parts is also guaranteed. Lower expenditure for removing flash, lower closing forces for the process as well as lower mould costs are further advantages. Thus with the blow moulding process and the use of th...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Ultrasonic Production Control
...amplitude of the moulding compound pulse are used to derive the current state of the moulding compound. The advantage of the transmission mode is that the test signal is received by the shortest path, whereas any reflections occurring arrive at a later time (Fig. 2). This considerably facilitates the automatic identification of the moulding compound pulse. Automatic Signal Analysis The aim of automatic signal analysis is to compute the velocity of sound in the moulding compound as a function o...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, User Report: Quality Assurance as a Continuous Challenge
...ng, incoming goods inspection with supplier assessment, SPC and error cards at the Schwaigern works, the company’s newly-founded works in Glashütte-Schlottwitz in the east of Germany were equipped with an identical quality system one year later. Step-by-Step Expansion From 1994 to 1999, following the introduction of the new quality specifications, including VDA 6 and QS-9000, the CAQ application was expanded into a comprehensive system to take in all quality-assurance tasks. QM manager, Egon B...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Varied Requirements: Innovations in Thermoforming
...ery costly, but the price has since come down as a result of mass production. The use of servo drives as a replacement for hydraulic or pneumatic drives has many advantages: The start-up positions can be saved for automatic start-up at a later date. Examples of their use include: Movement of the forming station, transport of the sheet including movement of chain divergence in order to avoid exessive sagging, upper plug drive and punch movements. Furthermore, they exhibit very high reproduction a...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Well Insulated
...t the plant. For example, the uncoiling stations for the metal facing permit coil changing without stopping the plant. This is made possible by clinch stations where the end of a coil can be quickly joined to the start of the next coil. This weld is later detected by the band saw and automatically cut out according to a preset cutting program. In contrast to earlier years when the increasing contamination of the mixing head discharge system by reacting rigid foam led to regular production stoppa...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, What Customer Focus Really Means
...VKE) Ernst Schadow recently. "The plastics processing industry is one of the most innovative branches of the processing branch", said the president of the Central Association of the Plastics Processing Industry (GKV) Günter Schwank not long later. Plastics production, plastics processing and plastics machine-making are riding the crest of a wave and market successes seem to confirm this: the growth rate for plastics consumption in Western Europe is 8 % per annum, for plastics processing ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Which Way is the Wind Blowing for GRP?
...ence of vacuum and heat. Laminates produced in this way are noted for their good handling, their particularly low pore volume and their excellent surface quality. The method whereby sections of the blades are prefabricated and assembled later is especially beneficial from a logistical point of view in the production of very large blades [5]. Modular Systems for Potlife and Curing Times Some rotor blade manufacturers still use unsaturated polyester resins (UP) as the matrix for the fire compos...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Wide Area of Applications: Upward Trend for Thermoplastic Polyurethanes
...er major areas of application at the time included membranes for hydro-pneumatic gas springs used in cars such as the Citroën (Fig.3). This application required gas impermeability and a high mechanical flexibility across a wide temperature range. Later, there were new applications such as cable sheathes, plug-and-socket connectors and service tubes for sensor cables, which required both a high tear and tear propagation resistance and a high wear resistance. With its mechanical performance profil...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, “Nano Molding”: Permanent Bond between Aluminium and Polymer
...in small indentations (Fig. 1). XPS reveals nitrogen atoms can be seen on the surface. This nitrogen comes from the T material used during the T process. It seems that the T material withstands water rinsing, drying and later storage (more than three months if sealed) and stays on the surface of the aluminum. It appears that when the aluminum alloy is immersed in the T material, the weak alkalinity of the T material causes the occurrence of hyperfine etching and chemical adsorption on the surfac...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-12-07, Interview: Successful Transition to the Next Generation
.... Companies with less vertical integration can adapt more readily to these fluctuations. How do you manage to do this? RK: We have a system where employees can "bank" extra hours that are worked and then take time off again later. This has proved successful and constitutes a highly efficient instrument for both sides. Kunststoffe: Have you at any time in the past 30 years been in a situation where you have had to reduce employee numbers at Arburg because there was simply no alternati...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-12-08, A Status Report (1): Versatility for Mass Production in MuCell Injection Moulding
...the injection moulding machine control via an appropriate interface. In this manner, the process-relevant parameters of the gas supply line can be stored together with the parts record, and are thus available for retrieval at a later time on a new production start-up. The quality-relevant parameters are also recorded in the machine control and can be continuously monitored in a similar way to conventional process parameters of the injection moulding machine, with defined tolerances. Engel has im...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-12-08, Kunststoffe plast europe - the Online Magazine
... address so that the article can be sent directly to your mailbox straightaway. You will receive the article in the form of a pdf file within a matter of minutes so that you can either read it on the screen or print it out to read later. You are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe? If you are not a subscriber of Kunststoffe plast europe, you can order individual articles from the magazine by e-mail, on account, or you decide to become a member of the readers’ community of Europe’s lead...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-01-09, PE-HD Compounds for Pipe Extrusion: Optimised Properties
...lyethylene (PE-HD) in Europe [1]. As a pioneer in this field, the former Farbwerke Hoechst AG, Frankfurt am Main/Germany, already developed a special PE-HD for pipes 50 years ago [2] and introduced Hostalen GM 5010 onto the market only a short time later. Even during those early years, the company had already set up a “multiple specimen test bench for long-term failure tests with pipes under internal pressure at room temperature” [3]. Specimens produced from the first PE-HD extrusion compounds...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-01-13, Materials Handling: Centralisation Complete
.... For example, a tool change and a cycle-time change substantially lowers throughput. As a result, the dwell time in the hopper rises, and that may lead to an over-drying which is often only noticed much later. Ready for the Upswing All that is lacking at the moment is the orders from German companies. There are 6000 potential customers, but the vast majority have not invested in machinery for several years. In particular, the SMEs have been particularly reluctant to invest. This leads to chang...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-01-15, Process Development: Tomorrow’s Tubes Today
...shower, in the kitchen and even in the garage. Due to the typical dispensing capabilities, the tube is here to stay. For over 100 years, a large variety of viscose products has been packaged in a tube. First there was the aluminium tube, which was later replaced by the plastic extruded tube. It is remarkable, however, that the actual shape of today’s tube is not much different from the first one - whatever the content – due to the inherent limitations of the current extrusion process. Due to th...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-01-26, Interview: Worldwide Investment Boom
...We've agreed on a flexible working-hours model with our employees here in Stuttgart and are working 40 hours a week at present in the key areas. This overtime will be taken off in the framework of flexitime at a later date. Kunststoffe: So everyone has their own individual “time bank”? Gronies: No, everything is organised at departmental level. At the moment, we are increasing working hours in individual departments, such as in production – and also in marketing and planning – and when the ...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-01-26, Recycling: Clean PET Flakes Through Use of Filtration
...yed to which various washing additives are added. The washing solution is usually recirculated. The residence time and frictional material contact between the PET flakes is essential for successful cleaning. Adhesives from labels are loosened no later than the hot wash stage, so that the labels can be separated from the PET. It can also be observed that paper labels disintegrate into individual fibres at the same time. In addition, printing inks are released from the labels into the washing solu...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-01-30, Dosage Systems: Functional Packaging for the Medical Sector
...tibility tests, such as the Cytotox test, which demonstrates compatibility with living cells. Our customers (manufacturers of medical products and pharmaceutical companies) then have the assurance that there will be no surprises at a later stage – during product licensing – in respect of the plastics employed. The next step then involves working together with the developer on the design of the parts. CAE and filling studies are employed here. Finally, for plastic parts that are in contact with ...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-02-22, Carbon-fibre-reinforced Plastics (CRP): The Black Gold of Lightweight Building
... Development in the Market. The 1960s first saw the use of epoxy resins reinforced with the very expensive carbon fibres for structural aerospace components; there followed lightweight applications in military and civil aircraft. Roughly 20 years later, when the raw material price had fallen to below 100 EUR per kg, CRP also found application in high-quality sports equipment, such as golf clubs and tennis racquets, racing bike wheels and fishing rods. In many technical areas, requirements conc...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-02-22, Interview: Changing Mould Construction
...er of Otto Männer AG. After being educated as a tool maker in a Swiss enterprise and engineering studies he began his career in his own family’s company 16 years ago. Here he first developed an active marketing organisation before he later took over the management of the separate Hot Runner Systems division. In Profile Männer Holding AG, Bahlingen/Germany, is specialised in the conception, development and manufacture of precision moulds, valve gate hot-runner systems and system solutions appro...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-02-24, Company History: 50 Years Old – and Bubbling Over with Ideas
...nt. Following this maxim, Arburg has been able to significantly promote the injection moulding business. The Spark. As it happens, the first contact the business had with injection moulding at the beginning of the 50s can be characterised as a lateral move. Originally, the mechanic Karl Hehl literally created his own first injection moulding machine because there was no alternative. At the time, the goal was to optimise flashbulb production domiciled in Loßburg in a way that guaranteed that wo...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-02-24, “Space Puzzle Molding“: Efficient Small Batch Production
...ction on standard injection die casting machines. The procedure simplifies subsequent modifications and improvements in design, since the moulds, which are structured like puzzles, may also be changed with no difficulty at a later stage of development. User: Protoform K. Hofmann GmbH Siemensstraße 45 D-90766 Fürth Germany Phone +49 (0) 9 11/75 99-0 Fax +49 (0) 9 11/75 99-100 www.protoform.com

Kunststoffe international, 2006-03-23, Lanxess: Moving Boldly into the Future
... an independent company in April this year, with a new company concept. The Lanxess shares were launched on the Frankfurt stock exchange on 31 January 2005, with an initial price of EUR 15.75, and were quoted at EUR 14.84 on that first day. A year later, the share price was around EUR 26. According to Dr. Axel C. Heitmann, Chairman of the Board of Management, speaking on the occasion of the company's first anniversary, the price was around 70% up on the initial share price. And, measured a...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-03-23, Packaging: Machine Technology for FFS Packaging Applications
...l be performed inline with the blown film system, or offline in a separate step. The position of the device for gusseting depends on the type of printing and the demands made on it. It is basically true to say that the higher the demands, the later the gusseting is carried out. For example, if the gusseting is carried out after printing, the tube can be printed beforehand over its entire width, also in the area of the gusset. As a result, advertising information is visible even when the sacks ar...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-03-23, PET Beverage Bottles: External Bottle Coating in a Stretch Blow Module
...onsumer of plastics in Germany. 50% of packaging plastics are processed into film, while a further 20% are used for hollow containers [1]. While 1.7 million litres of alcohol-free beverages were filled into PET bottles in 1998, the figure five years later is approximately 6 billion litres, representing some 42% of the soft drinks bottled in Germany. Today, it is not only carbonated soft drinks that are filled into PET bottles but also fruit and vegetable juices, teas, sports drinks, dairy produc...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-04-08, Thermoforming: Keeps Fresher for Longer
...ng looks at first sight like typical self-service packaging in skin film, with all its beneficial properties, but offers additional advantages such as a longer shelf life and therefore extended restocking interval both for the retailer and consumer (later expiry date), less wastage, higher productivity, avoidance of preservatives, more appetising appearance and lower sales costs as compared with a sales counter. The food is contained in “airtight” packaging in a modified atmosphere (N2, O2, CO2)...