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].

SO.F.TER. Group has debuted Laprene 83FE00864, a SEBS-based compound for the production of elastic films characterized by softness and transparency, optimal elastic recovery and high tear resistance.

Laprene 83FE00864 can be transformed by blown film extrusion into an extremely thin sheet, SO.F.TER. said, with thickness up to 50 microns. Additionally, it can be co-extruded with other polyolefins, such as polyethylene for the production of multi-layer films.

Laprene 83FE00864 is suitable for contact with a wide range of food products, the company claimed, and is completely free of hazardous substances. The product's softness makes it ideal for production of personal hygiene products, such as senior and baby diapers, as well as for other applications in the paramedical sector.

More information is available here.

Graco Inc. will highlight its new Fluid Automation F4-5 liquid silicone rubber dispensing equipment at MD&M Minneapolis 2015, Nov. 4-5 in Minneapolis.

The Graco Fluid Automation F4-5 systems are designed to keep the dispensing of two-component LSR consistently precise, Graco said, with two flow meters ensuring the material remains on-ratio.

This consistency is particularly critical in medical device manufacturing, Graco explained, where pharmaceutical properties added to the LSR make materials extremely expensive, and where off-ratio dispensing can result in product defects.

Additionally, the equipment's helical gear and unique flow meter construction allows the F4-5 to measure material in extremely small increments, which increases the operator's ability to detect even the smallest anomaly much sooner. This precise dispensing equipment helps to reduce costs by eliminating off-ratio dispensing, Graco said, and therefore waste caused by non-cured parts.

Other benefits include reduced machine footprint to provide more floor space for moving and storage, and the substitution of programmable logic controllers with the more robust and user-friendly proprietary Graco control architecture.

For more information, click here, call (800) 663.6522 or email [email protected].

Engel Austria GmbH's viper linear robots not only detect their own oscillations, but can also react to vibrations that are caused by external influences because of active vibration control. The company displayed these robots at Fakuma 2015.

In mobile phones, 3D motion sensors have long become standard equipment, Engel claimed, and now the Engel viper robots use this technology and thus significantly boost their performance and efficiency. Previously, robots own expected oscillations were calculated for vibration control, but now, external influences can be compensated for online. Thus the robots now can contribute to the injection molding process continuously, Engel said, and make production smarter in the sense of Industry 4.0.

Due to this active vibration control, the Engel viper robots reach a stable working position more quickly and operate with significantly greater positioning accuracy, Engel explained, which is important for such tasks as placing insert pieces or transferring pre-molded parts.

All Engel viper robots will be equipped with active vibration control starting from size 20 up to the largest Engel viper 120 robots with a load capacity of 120 kilograms.

In revising its linear robot series, Engel said it has not just increased the positioning speed, but it also has boosted the overall performance and efficiency. Within only three cycles, the Engel viper achieves the optimal dynamics for the respective injection molding process, Engel added, for example by reducing its speed corresponding to a long cooling stage without increasing the overall removal time.

Beyond the robots, Engel also displayed a new member joining the ENGEL iQ family of products at Fakuma 2015.

The prefix "iQ" stands for “intelligent quality,” which means that expert knowledge is integrated into the injection molding machine's control unit, Engel said. While the iQ weight control software introduced at Fakuma 2012 optimizes the injection process, Engel added that the focus in developing iQ clamp control was on the injection molding machine's clamping unit. By continuously adapting the clamping force, the software keeps the mold breathing constant even under fluctuating process conditions, Engel claimed.

For more information, visit www.engelglobal.com.