February 1999 Issue
February 1999
Features
Featured articles from the latest issue of Plastics Technology
Recyclers Find New Ways to Get More Out of Waste
Enhancing properties of recycled resins, especially commingled mixtures, was one theme of the recent Fifth Annual Recycling Conference, held by the SPE Recycling Div. in Chicago. Using new chemical compatibilizers and other new additives was one approach presented at the meeting. Another was a mechanical processing method that's said to achieve comparable results without additives. Other new developments at the meeting included improved resin-identification instruments, and a new type of silo that can discharge hard-to-move flake or fiber scrap.
Read More'True 3D' Adds Depth to Filling Simulation
A new class of 3D mold-filling software for PCs offers hope for previously unsolvable simulation problems. Here's what this simulation technology canand cannotdo for you.
Read More7 Layers Stretch Film Properties
What do extra layers add? Plant manager David London says they let Quintec make "the strongest films on the market today.
Read MoreUpdate & Share Technical Data With New Internet Software
The Internet becomes a tool for managing a molding organization's design and processing information with the help of new software from C-Mold, Louisville, Ky. The "Knowledge Management System" (KMS) provides a backbone for linking CAE analysis results and molding know-how, and it ensures that everyone throughout the company shares the same up-to-date information.
Read More15 Ways to Raise Blown Film Productivity (Without Breaking the Bank)
Blown film processors, many of them small enterprises with a single plant or a single costly line, may have limited resources, in both capital and manpower, to devote to optimizing their productivity. Yet avenues of improvement are open for even the most over-extended entrepreneur. And some of the most effective modifications cost little more than a phone call or a small change in procedures. The 15 tips presented here include ways to optimize areas of your operation from employee training to better customer communications.
Read MoreSheet Extrusion Competition Ups the Ante on Technological Sophistication
As sheet extruders consolidate, they're modernizing operations to raise output and efficiency. The pressure is on to run faster, wider, with more layers and innovative combinations of materials. The challenges multiply as sheet extrusion is teamed with in-line compounding and downstream operations like thermoforming.
Read MoreEasy-Sealing Plastomers Get Stiffer & Tougher
If you're looking for a film resin with the outstanding heat-sealability of metallocene plastomers but with higher stiffness for easier converting, you may want to try the new Mxsten CV family of linear hexene copolymers resins from Eastman Chemical Co., Kingsport, Tenn.
Read MoreBuild More Flexibility Into Your PET Preform Molds
The tradition of building molds dedicated to one PET preform design is being challenged by modular tooling with interchangeable parts that can makedifferent preforms from one mold set. Such flexibility offers enormous costsavings--if it is designed into the tool at the start.
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