A weekly look at new products, innovations

Editor's Note: Each week, Rubber & Plastics News will take a look at some of the rubber industry's new products and innovations on www.rubbernews.com. Does your company have a new product or new innovation? To be considered for inclusion in this recurring feature, email [email protected].

Beckhoff Automation L.L.C. has released its TwinCAT 3 automation software that the company said enables remote control of TwinCAT engineering systems and the automatic generation of programs and configurations.

Depending on the degree of automation, manual processing of control projects and the associated errors can be reduced or eliminated, Beckhoff said. The quality of the software engineering is increased while programming time and costs are reduced by the automation of project generation, according to the firm.

TwinCAT Automation Interface increases efficiency, the company claims, enabling remote access and control. Beckhoff said it provides the user with a programming interface that can be used for remote control of the TwinCAT system. This enables external control of nearly all offline and online functions.

The Automation Interface consists of several programming routines available to the user within the Automation Interface API in the form of classes and methods. These enable TwinCAT projects to be generated, changed and saved in a standard and flexible manner—in conjunction with a source code database such as Team Foundation Server, if desired, according to Bechhoff.

The integration of the TwinCAT engineering system into the Microsoft Visual Studio developer's environment opens further application possibilities for the Automation Interface, the company said, as the openness of Visual Studio and TwinCAT enables programmers to write their own plug-ins in addition to providing direct integration into the development environment.

For more information, visit www.beckhoffautomation.com/TwinCAT3.

Novomer Inc. has introduced Converge polypropylene carbonate polyols for use in polyurethane formulations targeted at adhesive, coatings, sealants, elastomers and rigid and flexible foams.

The company's initial product offerings, the 1000 and 2000 molecular weight grades, are manufactured at a multi-thousand-ton commercial-scale toll facility in Houston. The Converge polyols are available globally. So far, the materials have been used successfully in CASE (coatings, adhesives, sealants and elastomers) applications, the company said.

Novomer said the Converge trade name was selected because the polyols represent the convergence of performance, costs and sustainability. Converge polyols are designed to replace conventional petroleum-based polyether, polyester and polycarbonate polyols and are based on the co-polymerization of carbon dioxide and epoxides, and the resulting products contain more than 40 percent by weight CO2, the company said. The use of waste CO2 as a significant raw material yields a product with an extremely low carbon footprint. In addition, since waste CO2 is lower in cost than conventional petroleum-based raw materials, Converge polyol manufacturing costs are favorable compared to conventional polyols when produced at full commercial scale, Novomer said.

The polyols have a polycarbonate backbone that increases the strength and durability of polyurethane products, according to the firm. Incorporating these new polyols into existing formulations yields foams with higher tensile and tear strength, and increased load bearing capacity; adhesives and coatings with improved adhesion, cohesive strength, and weatherability; and elastomers with greater tensile and flexural strength.

For more information, go to http://novomer.com/?action=pressrelease&article_id=64.

Sick Inc. has launched its CLV610 fixed-mount 1D bar code scanners for warehouse and distribution center applications.

The CLV610 is a compact, industrial, laser-based scanner that Sick said is ideal for short reading distances with a large reading field height. Using SICK's SOPAS configuration software, these high-resolution scanners are easy to install and simple to integrate into conveyor systems, according to the company. An optional configuration cloning module and quick-release mounting bracket enable fast replacement time.

The CLV610 has an adjustable scanning frequency of up to 1,000 scans per second and a fixed-focus feature that enables simple and fast commissioning, according to Sick. These scanners can be used for tote reading, stacker crane and box reading applications as well as in medical analyzer applications. Short-, mid- and long-range scanners are available as well as CAN and fieldbus versions.

For more information, go to http://www.sick.com/us/en-us/home/Pages/Homepage1.aspx.