In a span of two weeks last month, Nordson Corp. spent $400 million to expand its interests in plastics.

Xaloy, Inc., New Castle, Pa., has acquired Spirex Corp., Youngstown, Ohio.

Maintenance departments often clean screws wrongly, causing serious and expensive damage.

Compounding news at the show includes several new ways to feed low-bulk-density materials faster for higher outputs with corotating twin screws.

If a better machine can help your company beat challenging economic conditions, you’ll probably find it at NPE. And finding it will be easier, thanks to our editors’ efforts to sift out of some 2000 exhibits the most significant news in injection and blow molding, extrusion, compounding, and thermoforming.

Injection MoldingHybrid Press Has Electric ClampNew injection presses that combine servo-electric and hydraulic movements to achieve high performance with energy efficiency will be discussed by Arburg Inc., Newington, Conn.

U.S. injection molders are still pretty green when it comes to processing the new crop of renewably sourced biopolymers. These biologically derived polymers made from PLA, PHA and starch-based resins are attracting growing market interest as materials with no ties to petrochemical-based thermoplastics.

An energy-saving induction barrel-heating option is now available directly from Ferromatik Milacron Europe North America, Batavia, Ohio.

Xaloy Inc., Pulaski, Va., has built the first scaled-up, commercial version of a patented extensional-flow mixing device, under exclusive license from Stratek Plastic Ltd. in Wallingford, Conn.

WEB EXCLUSIVE Xaloy Inc., New Castle, Pa., recently began extrusion trials of its energy-saving nXheat induction heaters on extruder barrels.

Bolt-on High-Performance (BHP) valve-gate nozzles from Herzog AG in Switzerland (represented here by Xaloy Inc., Pulaski, Va.) have been redesigned to improve melt flow 25% while imparting less shear stress to the melt.

Extruder operators often don’t compare the barrel-zone temperatures to the recommended processing temperature for the resin being run.

Determining the optimum barrel-temperature profile is one of the most important tasks in extrusion.

Xaloy Inc., New Castle, Pa., has come up with a more economical “hybrid” version of its nXheat induction heating system for injection machine barrels (previously named Indx). It combines power-saving induction heating in the feed zone with conventional heater bands in the downstream zones.

New single-loop temperature controls in 1/16 DIN and 1/8 DIN sizes are available from Dynisco, Franklin, Mass.

Dramatic energy savings, greater reliability, and much faster response than conventional heater bands are being claimed for an alternative that will debut at next month’s K 2007 show in Dusseldorf.

Compounding machinery news at the K Show next month focuses on more torque, more output, and sometimes both, for kneaders, mixers, and twin-screw extruders.

A novel method of heating injection barrels by electromagnetic induction will be unveiled at the K 2007 show in Dusseldorf in October by Xaloy Inc., New Castle, Pa.

A line of spring-actuated needle shut-off nozzles has been redesigned for improved performance in high-temperature, high-pressure molding.

Roper Industries, Inc., Duluth, Ga., has purchased Dynisco LLC from Audax Group.

Plastics made from renewable carbon chains, not fossil carbon from oil or gas, are suddenly a solid commercial reality. The draw isn’t just “green” marketing, but the “green” of stable prices not linked to petrochemicals.

Electrically driven valve pins, a low-cost alternative to valve-gating, mold-mounted temperature controllers, and new components for fast color changes are some of a host of new components and systems unveiled at the giant NPE 2006 show in Chicago this past June. (Some brand-new introductions since the show are also included in this report.) The news includes runnerless products aimed at everything from micromolding to shot weights up to 17.4 lb.

Thermal and mechanical testers, color and appearance sensors, vision inspection devices and CMMs—the NPE had them all in more compact, economical, and easy-to-use models.

The new Fusion II screw from Xaloy Inc., Pulaski, Va., is said to enhance chaotic mixing relative to earlier designs and thereby improve color or additive dispersion as well as melt homogeneity.

Much of the compounding news at the NPE Show in Chicago in June ad-dressed the growing trend among extrusion processors to become compounders.

The HP line of needle shutoff nozzles from Herzog AG in Switzerland (represented here by Xaloy Inc., Pulaski, Va.) has been redesigned for higher strength and easier assembly.

Web-based or wireless monitoring, combined temperature and pressure sensing, cost-saving modularity, and better ways to display and report process and production data are some of the advances in control and monitoring that will be presented at this year’s NPE.One development that could have the broadest implications is Watlow’s new EZ-Zone ST modular “integrated architecture” for temperature control loops.

The new factor in extrusion machinery at this NPE is the influx of Asian suppliers.

There’s never been a better time to outfit your lab or QC inspectors with testing and measuring instruments.

Xaloy Inc., Pulaski, Va., has purchased Dynisco Extrusion, Hickory, N.C., from Dynisco LLC.

Eight tips on installing and maintaining melt-pressure sensors in your extruder will help them last longer and give you fewer problems.

Capillary and torque rheometers are good for simulating processing conditions, troubleshooting, and QC. But dynamic rotational instruments can tell you more about a resin's molecular structure.

Closer cavity spacing, in-press serviceability, improved valve gates, smarter controls, quick-ship standard manifolds, and Internet e-commerce were leading themes in hot runners at the big show in Chicago.Hot-runner components were one of the largest categories of injection molding products exhibited at the triennial NPE show in June.

Visitors to NPE can get a taste of how the Internet will serve as a gateway connecting processors to their process or linking customers to their orders.

NPE will show higher outputs of practically everything, as advances in grooved feeds, servo drives, screw torque, mixing screws, dies, and downstream cooling, cutting, and handling make everything run faster.

Stress-free production of large car windows, in-mold painting, and an injection unit that applies pack and hold while accumulating the next shot were a few of the cutting-edge technologies on display.