Micrometal’s Use Of Glass Photo Tooling Contributes To Unique Levels Of Precision In Metal Part Fabrication 

micrometal has released details of a critical aspect of its next generation photo chemical etching (PCE ) process. Glass photo tooing makes micrometal’s process uniquely precise and contributes to the company’s ability to provide precision, geometrically complex metal parts, in volume, with levels of accuracy and repeatability that no other metal fabrication process can match.  Our glass tooling, a significant advantage in Photo Chemical Etching (PCE) technology, combined with our advanced process controls sets a new industry standard for precision and repeatability. The use of glass photo tooling is a pioneering approach that surpasses the capabilities of conventional digital photo tooling employed by other PCE service providers.

In an industry where precision is paramount, micrometal’s glass photo tooling technology delivers unmatched tolerances in the range of 1-2 microns. Our tooling is printed at 100k dpi, nearly 10x the resolution of conventional film-based photomasks.This level of detail is crucial for applications requiring microscopic accuracy, and micrometal’s process ensures that these demanding standards are consistently met. Glass tools, compared to conventional film tools, last a lifetime and are impervious to fading, temperature, humidity and other environmental factors.  This means that every part is identical, every time, for the life of the project.

Karl Martinson, Sales Director, North America at micrometal says, “micrometal’s use of glass photo tooling contributes to our ability to maintain supreme accuracy over extensive etching areas. For instance, over a 700 mm etch span, micrometal’s next generation PCE process can achieve a remarkable 5-10 micron tolerance. In contrast, PCE companies relying on traditional film-based tooling struggle to claim tolerances within the 50-60 micron range. This stark difference not only showcases the superiority of glass photo tooling but also underscores micrometal’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the area of PCE.”

micrometal’s use of glass photo tooling, integrated with our one-of-a-kind automated etch line, allows for an unparalleled level of detail in manufacturing of complex, high-precision components that were previously unattainable. As a result, micrometal is not just meeting the existing needs of the market but is also paving the way for new applications and innovations across various industry sectors.

micrometal stands at the peak of precision etching, providing its clients with the confidence that every product manufactured is not only of the highest precision but also produced with the most advanced and reliable technology available. Through the use of glass photo tooling, the company has maintained its position as the global leader in photo-chemical etching.

www.micrometal.de 

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PFAS-Free Additives For The Plastics Industry

Tosaf, a globally active manufacturer of additives, compounds, and colour masterbatches for the plastics industry, has developed processing aids for the extrusion of polyolefins that do not contain fluoroelastomers. They can be used without restriction in place of conventional products currently affected by the PFAS debate, are suitable for a wide range of film applications, and they meet the requirements of the FDA and EFSA for use in contact with food. While AP9709PE EU provides enhanced rheological properties, AP9711PE EU is the grade of choice if the focus is on optical properties, including clarity and haze.

In laboratory tests, Tosaf compared the processing properties of a metallocene PE-LLD with those of compounds based on it. One of these contained Tosaf’s standard fluoroelastomer-based processing aid (AP5645PE EU), while the comparison materials contained the alternative PFAS-free products. The results for the flow behaviour in the capillary rheometer and for the pressure reduction in the extruder die were largely consistent. The comparison of the optical properties – light transmission, haze and clarity – even showed slight advantages of the PFAS-free solutions over both the pure PE-LLD and the compound with the previous standard processing aid. The coefficient of friction (COF) showed a negligibly lower value for the film produced with the PFAS-free solution.

Current customer applications include a 5-layer coex-line using 1 % of Tosaf’s PFAS-free processing aid AP9709PE EUin the outer layer. Compared to a standard PFAS-based processing aid, this enables a 5°C to 10°C lower melt temperature and shows a significant lower occurrence of melt fracture as well as improved optical properties such as haze. The films can be printed, sealed and laminated without any problems.

As Tosaf’s Chief Innovation Scientist Dr Evgeni Zelikman comments: “This and other customer data for single and multilayer film extrusion consistently confirm the results of our extensive laboratory testing. Tosaf has once again demonstrated that its expertise, combined with its state-of-the-art research, development and testing facilities, can deliver solutions that the market is looking for, but which were previously considered unthinkable. Another particularly important factor for us is the problem-free behaviour of PFAS-free mono-material PE films in recycling. Our application engineers support manufacturers worldwide in optimising their production processes for the use of these alternative solutions.”

https://www.konsens.de/tosaf

SABIC ICEhouse Returns To Davos For The 8^th Time As An Iconic Hub Showcasing Sustainable Innovation & Collaboration

https://www.sabic.com/en

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Colorcon To Showcase New Functional Packaging Capabilities At Pharmapack Europe 2024

Colorcon, a world leader in the development and supply of film coating systems, speciality excipients and functional packaging for the healthcare industries, will be exhibiting its newly expanded portfolio the upcoming Pharmapack Europe tradeshow in Paris.

Recently, Colorcon acquired a new functional packaging business, an acquisition which greatly increases its capabilities in the healthcare market. Today, the company offers protection solutions for a large array of pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and diagnostic products, including tablets, effervescent tablets, capsules, diagnostic kits and strips, medical devices, powders, probiotics and more.

One of the latest innovations, the HAT-B Handy Active Tube, will be available for attendees to examine at Pharmapack Europe, which takes place on January 24-25.

HAT-B Handy Active Tube is an innovative packaging solution designed to effectively control moisture vapor transmission (MVTR), with a focus on diagnostic applications where precision of use is critical. Specific application areas include diagnostic strips, dietary supplements such as probiotics, moisture sensitive medicines and inhalation devices.

There are several key features which tick important practical boxes. Firstly, it incorporates an adjustable sorbent system, allowing healthcare product manufacturers to customise the quantity of sorbent material based on their specific products. In addition, the flip-top cap offers ease of access while maintaining an airtight seal to safeguard product integrity, with strategic placement of the desiccant at the base of the tube ensuring it remains closest to the reactive components of test strips.

The HAT-B Handy Active Tube has also been designed to reduce plastic usage, making it a sustainable choice for the market.

Matthias Brommer, President and Managing Director, Functional Packaging at Colorcon commented: “With new additions to our portfolio, we are excited to arrive at Pharmapack with our greatest variety and flexibility of solutions for the pharma industry. We also realise the importance of offering more sustainable options, with the sector eager to adopt more environmentally conscious solutions that benefit the planet and align to consumer expectations.”

The HAT-B Handy Active Tube will be featured in the Pharmapack Innovation Gallery, a dedicated forum where attendees can discover exhibitors and solutions pushing the boundaries of packaging and drug delivery.

Colorcon also encourages interested parties to visit Stand D93 at Pharmapack Europe 2024, where its experts will be on hand to answer any questions about the HAT-B Handy Active Tube and any other products in the portfolio.

www.colorcon.com.

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Coperion Optimizes Zsk 18 Megalab Extruder Design For Significantly Greater Flexibility 

Coperion has equipped its ZSK 18 MEGAlab laboratory extruder with numerous new functions that provide significantly greater flexibility and safety in handling. Pluggable cartridge heaters instead of hard wired ones now allow for rapid barrel reconfiguration as well as straightforward cartridge heater exchange. An electrically securable maintenance door on the gearbox lantern increases operational safety and at the same time provides quick access, reducing downtimes for screw changes and system maintenance. Moreover, feeders for this laboratory machine can now be placed on a newly developed patent-pending feeding platform which allows up to four feeders to be arranged with maximum flexibility for adding ingredients in myriad ways. 

The ZSK 18 MEGAlab, with a screw diameter of 18 mm, has a specific torque of 11.3 Nm/cm³ and achieves a maximum rotation speed of 1,200 min-1. It is ideally suited for use in research and development projects as well as for production of minimum quantities. 

Optimized feeding platform

The new, patent-pending feeding platform makes adding ingredients noticeably easier. It is firmly attached to the ZSK 18 MEGAlab extruder, allowing for flexible positioning of up to four feeders on all barrels of the process section as well as on the ZS-B side feeders. Moreover, the new feeding platform, which can be moved laterally along the machine, allows the feeders to be rotated and raised or lowered as needed. This feature creates enormous advantages particularly in the areas of research or recipe development, since feeding can be located flexibly at various points, in accordance with the process requirements. Elaborate, costly reconfiguration tasks and cumbersome additional frames for feeders are a thing of the past. Moreover, cleaning is simplified since the feeder can simply be pivoted away from the process section, thanks to the new platform. Where the previous model required a separate frame for each feeder, now up to four feeders can be mounted on the new platform. Time-consuming solutions for mounting additional feeders, or reconfigurations, have likewise become a thing of the past. This improvement significantly increases flexibility as well as efficiency in the production process.

New functions for safe, simple handling

Along with optimizing feeder positioning, Coperion has also incorporated proven functions from the ZSK series into the ZSK 18 MEGAlab. Among these, for example, are pluggable cartridge heaters. They are individually connected using IP67 plugs and can be removed for maintenance and barrel reconfiguration in no time, no electrician needed. Another improvement involves the gearbox lantern with easy access that can be equipped with an electronically secured maintenance opening. As soon as the screw shafts come to a complete stop, the door can be opened without tools. The screw shaft coupling is immediately accessible for maintenance purposes; machine downtimes drop significantly and completely safe servicing is assured. The machine can only be restarted when the maintenance doors are closed. 

As part of the ZSK 18 MEGAlab redesign, Coperion separated the mechanical and electrical machine components and recently mounted the control cabinet laterally onto the base frame. Thus, mechanical maintenance tasks on the base frame can likewise be performed without an electrician. The control cabinet is available in various designs: standard, stainless steel, or as a junction box if, for example, an external control cabinet is necessitated due to ATEX requirements. Coperion engineers have even improved the design of the base frame itself. Along with height-adjustable leveling feet, combined with casters, the cable routing has also been optimized to keep the floor around the extruder free of clutter and easier to clean. All supply lines have been centrally connected to the rear of the machine and distributed inside the base frame so that any possible impediments to working on the machine are reduced to a minimum.

“This optimized ZSK 18 MEGAlab extruder combines proven ZSK series functions and new developments specifically for laboratory operation that make its handling especially flexible and intuitive. This allows us to offer our customers a versatile extruder solution that is characterized by maximum efficiency, especially for small production batches and numerous recipe changes”, opined Johannes Heyn, Development Engineer with Coperion Research & Development.  

www.hillenbrand.com

Allrounder 470 H: Turnkey System Produces Adapters For Medical Technology

• Turnkey expertise: Customised solutions from the Arburg Technology Factory (ATF) Pinghu.
• Efficient: New hybrid machine technology at an attractive price-performance ratio.
• Exclusive: Flexlift for entry into automated moulded part production.

As a prime contractor, Arburg very successfully realises turnkey systems in China and Asia. A perfect example of this will be a production cell centred around a hybrid Allrounder 470 H at Chinaplas 2024. The exhibit uses a family mould to produce two different adapters for medical technology fully automatically, including camera inspection and sample part storage. A Flexlift 10+2 linear robotic system, only available in Asia, performes the handling tasks.

The turnkey system, which was designed in the Arburg Technology Factory (ATF) Pinghu, China, and realised together with local partners, is a typical customised solution for the Asian market.

Hybrid machine technology reduces costs and cycle times

Launched on the market in 2023, the hybrid Allrounders from the Hidrive series with new hybrid machine technology combine an electric, energy-efficient and precise clamping unit with a powerful and dynamic hydraulic injection unit. They are available in sizes 470, 520 and 570 with clamping forces of 1,000, 1,500 and 2,000 kN and in the “Comfort”, “Premium” and “Ultimate” performance variants. Allrounder Hidrive machines are particularly good at saving energy and resources, and are also production efficient, reliable and user-friendly. They are particularly impressive due to their reduced purchase and operating costs, optimised energy footprint as well as reduced cycle times. Thanks to a wide range of options, the machines can be precisely customised to specific requirements. Smart assistants and robotic systems can be integrated into the Gestica control system.

The Chinaplas exhibit is an Allrounder 470 H with a clamping force of 1,000 kN and a size 290 injection unit in the “Comfort” performance variant. It is also equipped with an Arburg servo hydraulic system (ASH) as standard.

Automated production of medical devices

For the production of adapters for medical technology the hybrid Allrounder 470 H is equipped with a 2+2-cavity family mould from Chinese company Changshen. It produces two different components from PC for adapters in medical technology in a cycle time of around 25 seconds. A Flexlift 10+2 linear robotic system performs the handling tasks. After they have been removed from the mould and separated from the sprues, the moulded parts are fed to an integrated camera for inspection and deposited separately by cavity. In addition, a test sample can be placed in a sample part drawer at the touch of a button and sent for quality control.

Only for Asia: Linear Flexlift robotic system

Arburg has developed the Flex series of linear robotic systems specifically for the Asian market and tailored them to the needs of customers in the region. Thanks to its low height and telescopic design, it is also suitable for confined spaces. Powerful servo motors ensure that the vertical mould-entry axes are extremely dynamic and accurate – enabling fast removal, precise and vibration-free movements and short cycle times. Arburg is meeting the market’s demand for a reliable, fast and precise robotic system with an impressive price/performance ratio. The Flexlift is available in six different versions with loads of 5, 10 or 15 kilograms and with the option of one or two immersible axes.

A Flexlift 10+2 with a load of ten plus two kilograms is used for trade fair applications. For the gentle removal of moulded parts and sprue, a Freeformer 300-3X was used to additively manufacture the associated gripper quickly and cost-effectively. There are also easily accessible pneumatic and vacuum interfaces for end-of-arm tooling (EOAT) and peripheral technology.

https://www.arburg.com/en/

EXPO-NET Promoting Infusion Processing Flow Mesh Range And Technical Expertise At JEC World 2024

EXPO-NET Danmark A/S is once again exhibiting at JEC World, Paris (Hall 5, 5P76) to promote its extensive range of 100% recyclable extruded thermoplastic resin flow meshes. The flow mesh products developed and produced by EXPO-NET are extensively used in composite manufacturing as essential vacuum infusion processing aids; during the new product development stage for large parts, such as for a wind generator blade or a yacht deck, up to four different custom made resin flow mesh grades can be used in specific areas of an infused part to increase productivity and to avoid premature resin hardening and air voids. EXPO-NET has been supplying leading wind blade producers for more than 25 years, known for being a highly innovative, technically advanced, problem solving partner.

During 2023, EXPO-NET continued to develop its technical knowledge, working closely with TECHCOLLEGE, located in Aalborg; the college is a leading vocational education and training (VET) institute in Denmark, with over 3000 full-time students; one of college’s specialist offerings is the range of training courses on composite materials and processing. Testing of the 13 different resin flow mesh product grades supplied by EXPO-NET was completed last year using TECHCOLLEGE‘s facilities and support. The test programme, instigated by EXPO-NET to help customers to better understand the rheological impact of different flow mesh grades and types, was developed and conducted by Mark Holmgaard Christensen, EXPO-NET’s plant manager; he is also a composite specialist development engineer and one of the examiners for the TECHCOLLEGE composite training course.

The latest ‘Vacuum Infusion Resin Flow Mesh Technical Processing Guide 2024’, which has now been published, provides comparative data on all the EXPO-NET flow mesh grades currently available. The guide enables an OEM or Tier 1 composite part producer to select the best flow mesh grades to use in different areas of a mould to consistently obtain the desired resin infusion speed and final part quality. Visitors to the EXPO-NET stand during JEC World 2024 will be able to hear about future developments, find out how EXPO-NET can assist customers in more detail, and obtain a copy of the updated 2024 technical processing guide.

EXPO-NET is a key preferred supplier to a wide variety of customers and markets worldwide, supplying both directly and via approved supply chain distributors and kitting partners. The EXPO-NET team prides itself on providing a flexible, responsive customer service, customized products, innovative technical support and a reliable supply chain delivery service. EXPO-NET is committed to its ongoing programme focused on sustainability and net zero.

www.expo-net.com 

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Exciting Line-Up Of Side Events With An Attractive Mixture Of Lectures, Info Slots, “Eco And High-Potential Trails”

Countering skilled labour shortages

Some 2,300 exhibitors on more than 118,000 square metres of net exhibition space – with these numbers wire and Tube 2024 are setting a powerful agenda. For the first time, the innovations showcased by the industry players in the exhibition halls will be accompanied by an extensive programme of supporting events tuned to the market – and what’s more – on all five trade fair days!

Premiere for the wire & Tube BME Einkäufertag / Buyers’ Day  on the Forum stage of Hall 1 A47 on Monday, 15 April. Everything revolving around Due Diligence Supply Chain Acts, sourcing and logistics, transparently compiled and presented by the Federal Association of Materials Management, Purchasing and Logistics (Bundesverband Materialwirtschaft, Einkauf und Logistik).

On Tuesday, the wire & Tube Convention 2024 will follow with entirely different exhibitor insights for the Green Steel theme and its implementation in their own manufacturing halls. The organiser is the “Agentur  Stahl-Kommunikation“.

From Monday, the SawExpo Forum will present news and trends from the multifaceted field of sawing and milling technologies in daily snapshots in Hall 6 G07. SawExpo GmbH is the organiser.

Publishing house Vulkan Verlag will organise a varied line-up of different focal topics on the Forum stage of Hall 1 A47 and in the conference rooms  14/15. Be it the Destination Green Summit by ecoMetals, the H2 Summit by ecoMetals or the Green Jobs Forum – exciting content presented in an infotaining way plus the mega theme Green Jobs are all aimed at attracting visitors.

In the Special Area Plastic Tubes & Pipes (Hall 1 C35) exhibitors will be showcasing the complete supply chain for plastic tubes and pipes and provide impressive demonstrations of possible processing and finishing methods for plastic tubes and pipes.

At the BDS Forum (Hall 1 A47) the Federal Association of the German Steel Trade (Bundesverband Deutscher Stahlhandel) will provide information on global trends in the steel trade. Here, experts will analyse the impact of current economic policy trends in the steel trade. Steel traders will also discuss sourcing and sales markets, economic framework conditions and the mega themes digitalisation and AI.

The ITA Forum (also on the Forum stage in Hall 1 A47) will address the global economic challenges for the industry in lectures and will project concrete impact scenarios for the tube and pipe industry.

The last two trade fair days will be all about the so-called High Potentials – i.e. promising skilled workers and young talents. Be they trainees, students or potential career changers – they will all have the opportunity in Hall 6 G07 to learn about vocational training and career opportunities in the versatile field of cutting technologies in numerous talks and information slots. Organised by SawExpo GmbH.

Also new are the daily digital ecoMetal and high potential Trails, allowing visitors to put together their personal itineraries online or by QR code to meet exhibitors from the fields of ecoMetals (producing sustainably and in a resource/environment saving way) and High Potentials (introducing themselves as attractive trainers/employers).

https://www.wire-tradefair.com/

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