ADDITIONAL PRODUCT NEWS

PRIAMUS Fill & Cool, Compact Version Now Available 

To meet demand PRIAMUS has introduced a compact version of its standard Fill & Cool hot runner temperature control system.   

PRIAMUS Fill & Cool controls the melt flow in hot runner systems and optimizes the fill time automatically. By using the same cavity temperature sensors for the melt flow control and the cooling circuits in the mold – and therefore the surface temperatures of the cavities – both can be controlled at the same time. Both controls together result in significantly improved and repeatable part dimensions, as well as more consistent part weights. 

The compact version is limited to 8 measuring channels, while the standard system is designed for up to 128 channels. The 8-channel process monitoring unit Pass Controller, which is also used as amplifier unit together with a handy but industrial Compact Panel PC including 10.1” touch screen display, are used as hardware basis. Both devices complement each other ideally especially because the Pass Controller also provides online viscosity control plus efficiency statistics.

Husky Introduces High Pressure Ultra 500 Valve Gate Hot Runner Nozzle 

Husky Injection Molding Systems Ltd. announced its new high pressure, high stem force Ultra 500 valve gate hot runner nozzle. This patent pending design is well suited for applications such as consumer electronics components and thin-wall technical parts that require injection pressure of up to 3 000 bar (43 500 psi) in combination with tight pitch spacing. 

Keith Carlton, Husky’s Vice President, Hot Runners and PET Molds, said, “We believe that this is the smallest nozzle on the market that features a bore diameter that is less than 24 mm.” 

The Ultra 500 valve gate meets the increasing injection pressure requirements for parts such as cell phone components. Until recently, these parts could not be directly gated and cold runners had to be used. This innovation greatly improves customer productivity by allowing direct gating for tight pitch parts, eliminating the need for cold runners. Hot runners provide faster cycles, ease of automation and require less resin than cold runners.

The high pressure Ultra 500 valve gate is available for 2- to 8-drop hot runners. The staggered stem actuation allows for sufficient stem force to produce high-quality gates for technical resins, including glass-filled materials. The independent stem actuation allows for sequential valve gate control, even with a tight pitch.   

REVO™ Achieving Great Reductions in CMM Scanning Time  

Renishaw's revolutionary, ultra-high-speed scanning system for coordinate measuring machines is achieving tremendous productivity gains with early adopters.  World-class manufacturers have retrofitted existing CMMs with the new Renscan5™ system and infinite positioning REVO™ head.  They've applied the system to speeding inspection on some of their more complex and time-consuming parts, achieving as much as a 922% throughput improvement over conventional 3-axis scanning. 

Denis Zayia, Renishaw's CMM product manager, states, "Besides major reductions in cycle times, Renscan5 and REVO make it possible to obtain far greater data point coverage.  REVO's low-mass, low-inertia design allows ultra-high-speed data capture — up to 4000 points a second compared to 200-300 data points for conventional scanning." 

A 3-D measuring device in its own right, the REVO head features two rotary axes - one in vertical plane, one in horizontal - to give infinite rotation and positioning capability. The REVO measuring head performs synchronized Y and Z axis motion to quickly follow changes in part geometry during inspection routines, avoiding the dynamic errors caused when moving the larger mass of a CMM structure.  Where X axis motion is required for the probing routine, he says, Renscan5 moves the CMM at a constant velocity along a constant vector as measurements are being taken, removing the acceleration/deceleration inertia errors incurred in conventional scanning.  

“Intelligent” Hot Runners from MHT 

In addition to its new HP-Stack® featured in last month’s TPN, MHT has also applied their "intelligent design" philosophy to hot runners.

The MHT state-of-the-art hot runner not only has excellent start-up performance and delivers identical part weight across all cavities thanks to homogeneous melt distribution, but, being much slimmer than most, has a low mass and a correspondingly low energy consumption. It is designed to be easily adaptable to any one of over 70 mold shoes to fit preform systems from all of the leading manufacturers.

A hot topic right now is the subject of low, lightweight neck finishes, such as the PCO 1881. MHT has selected a number of what will probably be the most popular finishes. These "Off-the-shelf" test preforms are offered to support customer trials.