Barwell shows off machines at Rubber Expo

CLEVELAND—Barwell Machinery USA Inc. showcased various machines at the ACS Rubber Division's International Elastomer Conference, Oct. 12-15.

One machine on display was the Barwell Spin Trim Rubber Deflashing Machine, which has been in service for a few years but never previously displayed at a rubber show. Barwell also showed two additions to the machine.

The company said the Spin Trim provides a quick and cost-effective method of deflashing small- to medium-size rubber parts.

“The Barwell Spin Trim is a deflashing machine, which is very well-suited for seal, O-ring, gasket-shaped parts that have a tear trim, and you need to remove the flash from the part. It does so mechanically without use of cryogenics,” Barwell Sales Engineer Bob Gomola said.

Some companies have a need for deflashing, he said, and their mold quality with a tear trim is decent enough where cryogenic deflashing and the expense involved with the nitrogen is not necessary for a good final part.

“This fills a perfect niche for that,” he said.

The Spin Trim eliminates the safety risk and labor-intensive time experienced with a manual trimming process, Barwell said. It also can be used as a cost-reducing first stage, before cryogenic deflashing, for items with excessive flash.

While the cryogenic units rely heavily on liquid nitrogen, that isn't the case with Barwell's equipment.

“Nitrogen becomes very expensive when you're using it continuously for large production runs for deflashing,” he said. “The savings comes in with the Spin Trim where ... there is no requirement for nitrogen, and all that expensive nitrogen is saved.”

In addition to the Spin Trim, Barwell said it has two extra pieces that can be part of the machine if needed.

The auto feeder is at the inlet of the machine, and it was designed for customers that do large quantities or large batches. Gomola said the auto feeder can preset a large amount, and the machine can run an automatic indexing of the conveyor belt to feed subsequent batches. It is capable of running for a longer period of time without people observing or manually having to be at the machine, he said.

At the outlet of the machine, the Barwell Spin Trim Separator can be added. This is a separate standalone piece of equipment that works in conjunction with the Spin Trim, Gomola said, where the proper sized grading meshes can be put in the separator and automatically have finished parts separated from the flash.

Also on display for the first time at a rubber show was the Barwell Gear Pump Preformer. The company displayed its smallest model: the model BPP70—BPP stands for Barwell Pump Preformer, and 70 indicates the maximum amount of output per hour in kilograms.

A gear pump is a cost-cutting continuous running solution for processors with long production runs, Barwell said, even those needed to run 24 hours per day. It has the added cost and time advantage of eliminating the need to pre-heat rubber on a two-roll mill before preforming.

This machine takes a cold strip of rubber into the feedbox of a single screw extruder, Gomola said, which will masticate and transfer the rubber to a gear pump. Through the gear pump, it will meter out the rubber into the Barwell cutter head through the dye. With the combination of the screw extruder, gear pump and cutter head, Barwell can maintain +/- 1 percent of weight on its cut preforms that then are ready to go into a compression mold.

Comparing this to the previous types of machines, which were hot feed machines, Gomola said, required the rubber compound to be warmed up. Then, typically on a two-roll mill, it gets loaded into the front of a machine.

“We wanted a lot of people to see this. And we're noticing in the industry a slight bit of thought that people are trying to get away from running their rubber in a two-roll mill,” he said. “It's a manual operation that they would like to avoid. It's an unnecessary piece of equipment, and if they go with the gear pump, it's less to maintain. And some people have a concern about the safety of the mills, just by virtue of the way they are designed and have to be run.”

Besides discussing the machinery at the show, Gomola spoke about a new program Barwell has introduced, the Barwell 26.

“This is where a customer can purchase a second-hand machine and have the Barwell people undergo a 26-stage rebuild,” he said.

“That's eliminating then a lot of risk of buying a used machine that you might just buy from another company, not knowing if it's running properly or working up to its potential. And it's a good, viable option for people who do need to have their own preforming capabilities.”

The program is going strong, he said. “The Barwell 26 takes it from whatever it was, an old tired work horse, replaces a lot of the parts with brand new—like the barrel and the head, places where the rubber contacts the machine—and brings it up to current safety standards and modern built-in weigh scale control for ease of machine operation.”

He said Barwell “has ... a dedication to becoming more of a partner with our machine owners, rather than just a supplier. We want to remain in the forefront of the industry, ensuring them and giving these owners peace of mind that we can provide a lifetime of support for their equipment.”

Barwell has its own Spares and Service division, based in Brunswick, Ohio, to serve the U.S. market.