April 2022 Extrusion Blog
April 18, 2022
Foamed Plastics Provide A Method of Reducing Material Cost
Promix Solutions located in Winterhur Switzerland is a company which provides mixing, foaming, and cooling products for plastics processing. They have come together with Hans Weber Maschinenfabrik GmbH to examine the feasibility, practicality, and savings potential of physical foaming. Together the companies have developed a method to produce multilayer pipe samples (traditional outer- and inner-layers, with foamed layers in the middle) that meet the same stiffness and drop-test standards as their non-foamed reference samples. The technique uses less material (up to 26% less virgin resin, in some cases), and also avoids the use of exothermic chemical blowing agents, many of which are of high environmental concern. Weber and Promix confirm that they will continue to pursue application of their foaming technique on a greater variety of polymers and pipes, including physically foamed PVC.

Read more about the joint venture of this foaming technology here
April 27, 2022
3D Filament at Medical Show 
On April 12-14, 2022 MD&M West / Plastic West show in Anaheim included Conair Group partnering up with Davis Standard and Zumbach Electronics. They displayed the manufacturing of extruded 0.06-in. dual-lumen “Double D” thermoplastic elastomer medical catheter. This product will be used to make 1.7 mm filament made of PLA, which can be applied towards 3-D printing operations. Its main features contain exchangeable barrel assemblies and convertible feed-sections liners for many materials and applications. It also includes benefits for medical cleanroom applications such as simple cleaning stainless steel finishes, direct drive motor, easier maintenance, and operator accessibility. This machine goes in a Z shape path so that the HTMP tank can allow cooling time equivalent to a tank over double in size.

Read more in depth about it​ here
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