MedTech plastic molding automation solutions
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Your Business In Brief - January 2008

CT Scans See Inside Plastic PartsCarl Zeiss Industrial Metrology, Maple Grove, Minn., is introducing a service for plastics and composites that can detect and quantify voids, delamination, incomplete filling, and other defects through industrial computed tomography, or CT scanning.

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CT Scans See Inside Plastic Parts

Carl Zeiss Industrial Metrology, Maple Grove, Minn., is introducing a service for plastics and composites that can detect and quantify voids, delamination, incomplete filling, and other defects through industrial computed tomography, or CT scanning. The company’s new North American CT Technology Center in Brighton, Mich., can analyze the inside and outside of a part in one scan by projecting a beam of x-rays through it while the object is rotated. It is a non-destructive method that measures internal cavities, undercuts, and deep recesses not readily captured by coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) and laser scanners.


The technology has been used in the automotive and aerospace industries for materials evaluation, prototyping, and QC. While industrial CT scanners cost from $300,000 to $5,000,000, Zeiss aims to make the technology affordable with its new service. Plastic part inspection will cost in the ballpark of $400 to $700 per part. A key to the service is the new Zeiss Metrotom scanner for parts whose longest dimension is 350 mm. It produces internal and external measurements that are accurate to ±10 microns, thanks to integration of Zeiss Calypso CMM metrology software. Most industrial CT scanners produce only visual representations, not dimensional data, according to Zeiss product manager Kevin Legacy. The Zeiss facility also has a Varian CT scanner for large components like plastic chairs.
For more information visit Carl Zeiss Industrial Metrology's PT Online Showroom.

Only a few other companies offer such a service—such as Varian Medical Systems, Palo Alto, Calif., and Bolton Works, E. Hartford, Conn.

 

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Azdel Sold to Korean Firm

Azdel, Inc., Forest, Va., a joint venture of SABIC Innovative Plastics (formerly GE Plastics), Pittsfield, Mass., and PPG Industries, Pittsburgh, has been sold to Hanwha Living & Creative Corp. of Seoul, Korea. Azdel is one of the oldest suppliers of glass-mat thermoplastic (GMT) composite formable sheets. It will continue to utilize resins from SABIC and fiberglass from PPG. However, it will now market its products itself instead of through SABIC. For more information visit Azdel, Inc.'s PT Online Showroom.

 

Basell to Buy Solvay’s TPO Unit

Basell Polyolefins in the Netherlands (U.S. office in Wilmington, Del.) has agreed to buy Solvay Engineered Polymers, Inc., Auburn Hills, Mich., a leading supplier of TPOs and TPVs. For more information visit Basell's PT Online Showroom.

 

Battenfeld Gloucester Sold

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