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].

Flexicon Corp. has released a new wide-inletbulk bag filler that the company claims allows rapid filling and passage of large, moist or dense chunks and semi-solid materials into open or duffle-top bulk bags.

The unit features powered height adjustment of the cantilevered fill head to accommodate all bag heights, pneumatically-adjustable bag hooks, a roller conveyor, automated vibratory densification/deaeration deck and load cells with automated controls, the company said.

Material passes through a hopper equipped with a slide gate valve positioned above the filler, Flexicon said, and through the filler's inlet chute that tapers from 26 to 20 inches square before discharging into an open-top bulk bag.

Flexicon said a vibratory deaeration deck activated at timed intervals during the filling cycle densifies the bulk material, stabilizing the bag. When load cells signal that the bag is approaching target weight, a controller shuts the slide gate valve, releases the bag straps and activates a powered roller conveyor to remove the filled bulk bag from the filling area, Flexicon claimed.

The product is made of carbon steel, according to the firm, and the system is suitable for sludge-like materials, disparate-sized scrap, mulch, stone, coal, wood pellets and other bulk material containing pieces, chunks, agglomerates, clumps and other materials too large or non-free-flowing for conventional bulk bags and fillers.

Flexicon also offers twin-centerpost bulk bag fillers for low volume and low cost filling applications, the company said, and swing-down bulk bag fillers that lower and pivot the fill head to the operator at floor level for rapid bag connections.

For more information, contact Flexicon at 1-888-353-9426, via email at [email protected], or go to www.flexicon.com

Mecmesin has released VectorPro Lite, which the company said is the latest dedicated software that interacts with Mecmesin's series of MultiTest dV force, and Vortex dV torque, test stands.

Run from the computer, VectorPro Lite provides data acquisition, real-time graph plotting, adds a range of calculations, and passes data and results to export file and report, Mecmesin said.

When used with Mecmesin-dV family test stands, test sequences can be stored and uploaded from a single icon, making a test station flexible, simple to operate, and protected from accidental missettings, the company claimed.

VectorPro Lite provides for results storage and calculation, closer graph analysis, and batch processing, and can be used with Mecmesin digital instruments such as the Advanced Force Gauge or Tornado closure tester, the company said.

VectorPro Lite is built around a database core that keeps track of everything, from user permissions to test parameters, from test versions to the results and details of every test, the company claimed. It operates with with 15 selectable languages

More details of VectorPro Lite and Mecmesin-dV range systems can be found at www.mecmesin.com.

Mahr Federal's Multimar 36 B Indicator Gage has been enhanced to accept a wider range of contacts and anvils, enabling measurement of pitch, gear diameters, threads, taper diameters and recesses, according to the company.

It also can accept a Mahr integrated wireless indicator for wireless data transmission, the company said. The Multimar 36 B is available in both T-Plate and V-Plate styles and in two sizes, according to Mahr Federal, and the 36 B ID/OD indicator gage can measure inside diameters from 0.75" to 9" and outside diameters from 0.25" to 9.5", and can accept any indicator with an 8 mm mounting shank, the company claimed.

The basic design now can accept many of the contacts and anvils from the Multimar 844 T universal gage, the company said, and measurement results can be transmitted wirelessly to a data collection system.

The T-Plate configuration on the 36 B gives a diameter reading directly across the diameter, Mahr Federal said, while the V-Plate configuration is self-centralizing. Frequently used to inspect parts with odd number lobing conditions, the three V jaws measure the distance between the sensitive contact and the chord formed by the two reference contacts, the company said, with the measurement bearing a direct relationship to the diameter, with compensation made by a special ratio indicator so diameter is read directly.

The 36 B ID/OD Indicator Gage features adjustable contact retraction, which allows for the measurement of grooves and races, the company claimed. Frictionless reed-spring motion transfer facilitates repeatability, and gaging pressure is adjustable from 0-35 N/0-8 lb, the company said.

The gage can be positioned at any angle from horizontal to vertical, Mahr Federal said, and by reversing the top-plates changes the measurement from ID to OD. The 36 B ID/OD Indicator Gage is supplied with JW-9 jaws, but the company said special spherical contacts are available in steel and tungsten carbide.

For more information, call 800-343-2050 or 401-784-3100; email [email protected]; or go to www.mahr.com.