Plastic Fantastic

North American company Beaumont Technology is extending its MeltFlipper and Max mould feed optimisation hardware with the introduction of iMarc in-mould adjustable rheological control system.

MeltFlipper and Max enable injection moulders to balance mould filling and to alter filling patterns within specific cavities, eliminating a variety of waste and part quality issues.

The iMarc system is a development of the MeltFlipper and Max technologies, but with the additional capability of dynamic melt flow adjustment from the parting of the tool. This can be achieved, says Beaumont, without the need to change gate locations, part geometry or process conditions.

www.beaumontinc.com

The European plastics caps and closures market amounted to 217 billion units in 2007, representing a value of €215bn, according to the latest study of the sector by UK market analysis group AMI.

Total production of plastics caps and closures has grown at a rate of around 6% a year over the past three years, says AMI. However, production of one-piece closures has expanded at a rate of 9% a year over the same period and this style now accounts for 64% of the standard beverage closure market. One-piece closures accounted for 55% of this market sector in 2004.

Cost reduction and light-weighting initiatives lie behind the move to one-piece closure designs, says AMI.

The beverage sector accounted for 64% of European closure production in 2007. AMI predicts that growth rates of around 4% a year will be seen in this market up to 2012. Key drivers will be the expansion of still sport and juice drink markets and substitution of cans by single-trip PET containers.

Plastics closure consumption will also benefit from the growing market for beer in PET in eastern Europe. In fact, AMI predicts that the countries of eastern Europe will see closure consumption grow at around 8% a year to 2012 against a 3% rate in the more mature western markets. Western European producers will, it says, focus more on non-standard and sports designs.

Custom closures, including non-standard diameters, sports caps and carton mechanisms, continue to present the greatest opportunity to add value.

European closure producers consumed 770,000 tonnes of polymer during 2007. PP accounted for 55% of this volume, with PE and PE/EVA based resins accounting for 44%.

AMI says one-piece closure growth has helped PE/EVA gain a five percentage point share on PP since 2004. For the same reason, it predicts PE will see 5% per year growth to 2012 against a 2% rate for PP.

www.amiplastics.com

UK-based Bronkhorst has launched a new range of liquid dosing systems able to cover flow rates from a few nanolitres to 1000kg/hr. The new units are claimed to provide high accuracy and pulsation-free delivery in a compact package.

Each integrated liquid dosing system incorporates a mass flowmeter from either Bronkhorst’s thermal mass Liqui-Flow or Coriolis-type Cori-Flow series. Onboard control, closely-coupled gear pump, liquid filter and check valve are included.

www.bronkhorst.co.uk

German hot runner supplier is now offering the wireless LAN option for all of its hot runner temperature controller.

Wireless LAN allows low-cost remote monitoring to be set up to track temperature controllers and operating conditions of hot runner systems. It also allows equipment to be adjusted remotely.

The system uses the normal wireless standards and provides a transfer rate of 54 Mbit/s.

www.gammaflux.com

The high cost of oil is hitting motorists hard in the pocket. But carmakers are looking at fuel economy from a very different perspective – regulators within both Europe and the US are tabling tough new laws designed to curb CO2 emissions.

The EC has drafted legislation aimed at reducing average fleet CO2 emissions from new passenger cars from today’s level of 160g/km to 130g/km by 2012, a reduction of 19%. In the US, regulators are looking for a 4.5% improvement in Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) performance each year until 2015, when it wants to see passenger cars averaging 35.7mpg (15.2km/l).

Achieving these targets will require a whole raft of new technologies, but one weapon in the armoury will be a renewed focus on weight reduction. And plastics will play a key part.

One of the key challenges will be to reverse the trend for cars to grow with each generation. Jean-Claude Steinmetz, vice president for the automotive and transport market at Rhodia points out that average vehicle weight increased over the period from 1995-2005 period from 1,100kg to 1,300kg.

More specifically, he says the first Volkswagen Golf weighed 750kg. Today’s Golf weighs 1,400kg. “36% of emissions are due to weight. If 20% weight can be saved, it means 10-12g/km less CO2 emission,” he says.

Steinmetz believes a greater use of plastics could still cut around 35kg from vehicle exterior parts, 22kg from the engine compartment, and 63kg off the structure of a vehicle.

Expanded PP foam producer JSP also emphasises the emissions saving potential of plastics. It claims that the use of its foams in seating systems, for instance, can reduce weight by up to 35% – or 10kg per car.

“A 10 kg weight saving in a car that sells over 100,000 units annually and has a kerb weight of 1,200 kg is the equivalent of reducing the environmental impact of its production by over 800 cars a year,” says JSP Europe chief operating officer Paul Compton. “On an average car that’s a reduction of over 20,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.”

A review of sustainability carried out by Johnson Controls Interiors also underlines the critical role of weight reduction. It calculates that 77% of green house gases (GHG) occur during the usage phase of a vehicle, with fuel extraction, processing and distribution accounting for 11%, manufacturing 9.5%, resource extraction and transportation 3.4%, and end-of-life disposal 0.13%.

Faurecia’s CEO for automotive parts Yann Delabriere told EPN sister magazine Automotive News Europe that weight reduction is now a top priority. “We have been discussing weight for years, but not with the same cost consciousness,” he says.

Faurecia’s product portfolio – seating, cockpits, bumpers and exhaust systems – accounts for around 16% of the weight of a typical vehicle, so scope for it to influence vehicle weight is huge. “If we account for 16% of the weight of a car and the car weighs 1.2 tonnes, then our products represent about 190kg. If we reduce this by up to 20%, that means about 38kg,” he says.

Plastics headlamps and body panels have been a key contributor to weight reduction over the past decade– while also improving design flexibility. That combination of benefits is now ready to transfer to the vehicle’s glazing.

Sabic Innovative Plastics European automotive market director Derek Buckmaster estimates that replacing the side and rear glass on all the passenger vehicles on the road in Europe today with PC alternatives could reduce fuel consumption by around 2,100m litres a year and CO2 emissions by around 5.2m tonnes.

And US envirommental strategy group GreenOrder calculated that the Qarmaq concept SUV developed by Sabic IP together with Hyundai to showcase the potential of PC glazing resulted in a 60kg weight saving.

It is unlikely that Renault chose PC for the rear quarterlights and screen on the limited edition road-going version of its high performance Megane F1 Team R26 car to reduce emissions, but the weight saving it achieved – 5.7kg per car – shows what can be realised through the use of polymers.

German compound producer Peter Putsch launched a new PP-based compound at Fakuma 2008 that it claims will simplify production of injection moulded interconnect devices (MIDs).

The new compound contains a carbon-based conductivity component that is dispersed in the moulding material. This conductivity additive is exposed and activated by selective application of a laser beam to the material surface.

According to Putsch, the conductive tracks eliminate the need for metallization, taking MID production to a two step process of just injection moulding followed by laser melting.

Trials carried out at the Bayerisches Laserzentrum (BLZ) at Erlangen in Germany are said to have shown that good results are achieved using the same laser systems as used for current MID projects. Conductive pathways ranging from narrow tracks to large bands have been produced, with conductivity increasing with the laser intensity used.

Putsch said that the resulting tracks display a well defined edge along with long term stability over the typical operating range for PP.

German machinery maker Dr Boy introduced a new hydraulic drive option for its 55 and 90 tonne injection machines at Fakuma that it claims can reduce energy consumption by up to 50%, yet carries a price premium of less than Euro 3,500.

The energy saving E series technology, which will be offered initially on the company’s 55 and 90 tonne models, replaces the standard variable speed hydraulic pump unit with a servo-motor pump drive. This delivers only the volume of hydraulic oil required at any particular point in the moulding cycle; when no pump capacity is required, the motor shuts off completely.

The company says the E machine, which uses an otherwise standard hydraulic system, will reduce energy consumption by 50% compared to a full hydraulic machine with a variable speed pump. The specially developed servo motor and software control also provides a 10% improvement in operating dynamics and a 20% reduction in noise levels, according to the company, while the reduced load on the oil minimises cooling requirements.

Boy export sales engineer Hans-Peter Hirte said the new machine drive has been designed to enable the company’s customer base to realise many of the benefits of all-electric moulding machines without the capital investment or the need to retrain maintenance staff.

“Our philosophy is to construct machines for people that will own them for a long time. This machine is easy to work on and the parts costs are not high,” he said.

Because the 55E design uses just a single servo motor drive, customers can also benefit from a much reduced connected load. Hirte said the 11kW rating of the 55E is the same as a standard hydraulic machine; the multiple drives on a conventional all-electric would be rated at 70kW or more.

The company said the E machines can be ordered now, with the first 55 tonne machines likely to be delivered to customers in March. The first 90E models will be delivered in April.

Premiums over standard Boy machines are Euro 2,000 for the 55E and Euro 3,500 for the 90E.

Hirte said the E drive technology, which has been developed exclusively for Boy, may be applied to other models in the Boy range in the future.