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Injection transfer is cheaper than GMT moulding
PROCES~~
Replacing acetone helps cut costs of boat manufacture USING propylene carbo• nate (PC) as a replacement solvent for acetone has reduced the maintenance costs and improved the operation of its spray guns, says Carver Yachts, of Pu• laski, Wisconsin, USA. The boat manufac• turer's environmental and safety manager, Jim johans• ki, had five basic require• ments for a replacement solvent. It couldn't be on the Hazardous Air' Pollu• tants (HAP) list, and it had to be non-hazardous, bio • degradable, hypoaUergenic and have low flammability. Among the list of alterna• tives he considered were terpenes, glycols, water• based emulsions, dibasic ester, diacetone alcohol, N-methyl-2 -pyrrolidone and various combinations of these solvents. Arco• nate H PC from ARCO Che• mical Co was eventually selected because it was the most aggressive and least hazardous. In addi • tion, it didn't have any of the user drawbacks that some of the others had, such as being hard on the hands or having an unplea• sant odour. One of the characteris• tics that Carver evaluated was how well the various solvents cleaned at high resin loads. Even with a 100% resin load, Arconate PC was still clean. Unlike a 50:50 mix of acetone and resin, it won't gel over• night. However, this does have disadvantages because once the resin gels, PC can't clean it up like acet• one can. This had obvious implications for spray gun maintenance . Although
Reinforced Plastics October 1995
Carver employees had al• ways been trained to clean their spray guns every 10-15 rnins, some had discovered that with acetone they could go for much longer periods With• out stopping. With the changeover to PC, cleaning the guns every 10-15 mins became crucial and re-edu• cation was necessary to get employees to stay within these maintenance inter• vals. However, johanskt says that since the crews are now cleaning their tools more frequently, the switch has reduced Car• ver's gun maintenance costs. Frequent use of the solvent was also found to condition the guns and make them operate better, says johanski. For every drum of acet• one that Carver used in the past, it now uses only less than half a drum of Arconate PC which helps to narrow the cost differ• ential between the two solvents. In addition, be• cause acetone evaporates so quickly, Carver lost up to 65% of the solvent in the recycling process. With PC, that loss has been reduced to 30%. An• other benefit is that the boat manufacturer is cur• rently on the second round of using recycled PC, and expects to get a minimum of ten cycles from each batch. Volati• le organic compound (VOC) emissions have also been reduced by 60% thereby cutting down on emission fees. Nancy McGrory, ARCa Chemical Co; tel: + 1• 610-359-5642.
Injection transfer is cheaper than GMT moulding A PROCESS that is said to offer both technical and economic advantages over glass mat thermoplastic (GMT) compression moulding and long fibre injection moulding is due to be launched later this year. Composite Products Inc, of Winona, Minnesota, says that its high-volume, closed mould thermoplas• tic composite process will be targeted at the structural automotive parts industry. The technology is known as injection trans• fer moulding and was de • veloped by the firm over the last two years. At present, the company is scaling up an automated injection transfer produc• tion cell at its Winona manufacturing plant and expects full commercial production to begin in December. An annual yield of 400 000 parts is expected, reports Plastics News. The process will employ multi-cavity moulding: 100 000 sets and four parts per set. According to the re • port, Composite Products is declining to say which car maker is buying the parts, however it is known to be one of the Big Three. The parts will be used on the 1996.5 vehi• cle platform - a model to be sold in the USA and Europe. The parts will be structural in nature, but must also conform to ex• ternal appearance surface requirements, and will In• corporate localized areas
•
of moulded-in surface tex• ture. President Tom Prussia says that the injection technology was chosen over competing bids from nylon injection moulding and polypropylene com• pression moulding sys• tems. In a separate develop• ment, Composite Pro• ducts is licensing the injection transfer technol• ogy to another automo• tive parts supplier, with production sched• uled to begin in 1997. That project will involve moulding structural seat components for a 1988 vehicle model. Prussia says that the composite moulding tech• nology is mainly targeted at automotive weight• bearing structural mem• bers and body pillars. The technology is not considered a candidate for large body panels or exterior effects such as spoilers or bumper shrouds because of limita• tions on surface proper• ties that results from high glass loadings. Parts being moulded in the December project will have a glass loading of 40%, with fibres 1.3 to 2.5 cm long. Poly• propylene is the matrix resin. Composite Products is evaluating nylon and ther• moplastic polyester for future projects. Composite Products Inc; tel: + 1-507-452• 2881.
Replacing acetone helps cut costs of boat manufacture USING propylene carbo• nate (PC) as a replacement solvent for acetone has reduced the maintenance costs and improved the operation of its spray guns, says Carver Yachts, of Pu• laski, Wisconsin, USA. The boat manufac• turer's environmental and safety manager, Jim johans• ki, had five basic require• ments for a replacement solvent. It couldn't be on the Hazardous Air' Pollu• tants (HAP) list, and it had to be non-hazardous, bio • degradable, hypoaUergenic and have low flammability. Among the list of alterna• tives he considered were terpenes, glycols, water• based emulsions, dibasic ester, diacetone alcohol, N-methyl-2 -pyrrolidone and various combinations of these solvents. Arco• nate H PC from ARCO Che• mical Co was eventually selected because it was the most aggressive and least hazardous. In addi • tion, it didn't have any of the user drawbacks that some of the others had, such as being hard on the hands or having an unplea• sant odour. One of the characteris• tics that Carver evaluated was how well the various solvents cleaned at high resin loads. Even with a 100% resin load, Arconate PC was still clean. Unlike a 50:50 mix of acetone and resin, it won't gel over• night. However, this does have disadvantages because once the resin gels, PC can't clean it up like acet• one can. This had obvious implications for spray gun maintenance . Although
Reinforced Plastics October 1995
Carver employees had al• ways been trained to clean their spray guns every 10-15 rnins, some had discovered that with acetone they could go for much longer periods With• out stopping. With the changeover to PC, cleaning the guns every 10-15 mins became crucial and re-edu• cation was necessary to get employees to stay within these maintenance inter• vals. However, johanskt says that since the crews are now cleaning their tools more frequently, the switch has reduced Car• ver's gun maintenance costs. Frequent use of the solvent was also found to condition the guns and make them operate better, says johanski. For every drum of acet• one that Carver used in the past, it now uses only less than half a drum of Arconate PC which helps to narrow the cost differ• ential between the two solvents. In addition, be• cause acetone evaporates so quickly, Carver lost up to 65% of the solvent in the recycling process. With PC, that loss has been reduced to 30%. An• other benefit is that the boat manufacturer is cur• rently on the second round of using recycled PC, and expects to get a minimum of ten cycles from each batch. Volati• le organic compound (VOC) emissions have also been reduced by 60% thereby cutting down on emission fees. Nancy McGrory, ARCa Chemical Co; tel: + 1• 610-359-5642.
Injection transfer is cheaper than GMT moulding A PROCESS that is said to offer both technical and economic advantages over glass mat thermoplastic (GMT) compression moulding and long fibre injection moulding is due to be launched later this year. Composite Products Inc, of Winona, Minnesota, says that its high-volume, closed mould thermoplas• tic composite process will be targeted at the structural automotive parts industry. The technology is known as injection trans• fer moulding and was de • veloped by the firm over the last two years. At present, the company is scaling up an automated injection transfer produc• tion cell at its Winona manufacturing plant and expects full commercial production to begin in December. An annual yield of 400 000 parts is expected, reports Plastics News. The process will employ multi-cavity moulding: 100 000 sets and four parts per set. According to the re • port, Composite Products is declining to say which car maker is buying the parts, however it is known to be one of the Big Three. The parts will be used on the 1996.5 vehi• cle platform - a model to be sold in the USA and Europe. The parts will be structural in nature, but must also conform to ex• ternal appearance surface requirements, and will In• corporate localized areas
•
of moulded-in surface tex• ture. President Tom Prussia says that the injection technology was chosen over competing bids from nylon injection moulding and polypropylene com• pression moulding sys• tems. In a separate develop• ment, Composite Pro• ducts is licensing the injection transfer technol• ogy to another automo• tive parts supplier, with production sched• uled to begin in 1997. That project will involve moulding structural seat components for a 1988 vehicle model. Prussia says that the composite moulding tech• nology is mainly targeted at automotive weight• bearing structural mem• bers and body pillars. The technology is not considered a candidate for large body panels or exterior effects such as spoilers or bumper shrouds because of limita• tions on surface proper• ties that results from high glass loadings. Parts being moulded in the December project will have a glass loading of 40%, with fibres 1.3 to 2.5 cm long. Poly• propylene is the matrix resin. Composite Products is evaluating nylon and ther• moplastic polyester for future projects. Composite Products Inc; tel: + 1-507-452• 2881.