At MD&M West/Plastec West 2022, Conair Group, together with technology partners Davis Standard and Zumbach Electronics, will be demonstrating production of extruded 0.06-inch (1.5-mm) dual-lumen “Double D” thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) medical catheter. In addition, the line will be used to produce 1.7mm filament made of polylactic acid (PLA) biopolymer, which will be used in a 3-D-printer operating in Booth 4024 during the tradeshow, which is being held in Anaheim, CA, April 12-14, 2022.

In operation, PLA will be processed in a Davis Standard 1-inch MEDD Series (Medical Extruder Direct Drive) extruder. Its key features include interchangeable barrel assemblies and replaceable feed-sections liners for multiple materials and applications. Easy-to-clean stainless-steel surfaces, direct drive motor, simplified maintenance, and operator accessibility are other key advantages for medical cleanroom applications.

From the extruder, melt passes through a cross-head filament extrusion die and a non-contact calibrator in the Conair HTMP multi-pass vacuum-sizing/cooling tank. Wafer inserts, sized to the filament, seal the entrance to the tank to allow for vacuum sizing. Emerging from the tank, the filament goes to a Medline Puller and on to a Conair ATC Series coiler set up with multiple small spools on the coiling shaft. System programming will wind one spool after another until all spools are full. Then the coiler indexes to another shaft with empty spools so the operation can unload to get ready for the next cycle. A floor-mounted ultrasonic loop sensor monitors the incoming product, automatically adjusting coil speed and traverse motion to wind product smoothly, without the friction or tension that can distort delicate extruded products. The unit’s automatic coil-isolation feature locks out access during coil transition, then actuates upper and lower safety gates that isolate the actively winding spindle, enabling users to safely access and remove full coils on the other side of the cabinet.

The multi-pass tank is a space-saving Conair innovation. Instead of making a single pass through a long tank, the extrudate follows a Z-shaped path so that the compact, 12-ft-long HTMP tank provides cooling time equivalent to a 30-ft tank while fitting neatly into the 20 x 30-ft Conair tradeshow booth.

“Floor space in any manufacturing plant is costly,” says Ernie Preiato, VP, Extrusion Sales, “and even more so in a cleanroom environment. Considering our multi-pass tanks occupy only about a third of the space a full-length, single-pass tank requires, the savings and convenience are considerable.”

Catheter Extrusion

On Thursday, April 14, Conair and its partners will be shifting the extrusion line over to production of the dual-lumen “Double D” thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) medical catheter. In addition to the David Standard extruder and Conair upstream and downstream equipment, the line will also feature an ultrasonic wall-thickness gauge provided by Zumbach Electronics. The extruder control integrates these downstream inputs to ensure consistent quality automatically.

TPE resin will be prepared for extrusion by Conair’s Carousel Plus™ dX drying system equipped with a DC-B premium control and Drying Monitor. The patented Drying Monitor monitors temperatures at multiple points in the drying hopper, providing early detection of poor drying conditions so corrections can be made to prevent processing of improperly dried material. The Carousel Plus drying system also includes an onboard conveying option to a Conair MedLine Tube Loader on the extruder feed throat. Using a second tube loader on the drying hopper, the Carousel Plus dryer will draw source material to be properly dried before entering the extrusion process.  Other Conair medical-grade MedLine® auxiliaries include a Thermolator® temperature control unit (TCU) and a Conair EP1A-02 (two-ton) portable air-cooled chiller.

After processing through the extruder, tubing leaves the cross-head die and immediately enters the Conair HTMP multi-pass tank. Like all MedLine auxiliaries, it is specially configured, documented, and supported for cleanroom applications.

The HTMP tank uses a series of motorized sheaves to gently pull extrudate through cooling water, starting with a 6-ft vacuum chamber that creates a positive differential in air pressure within the extruded tube. This slight outward pressure, generated by the vacuum in the tank, helps stabilize tube dimensions before additional cooling passes while preventing any “drool” of cooling water out of the tank’s feed opening that could mar the surface finish of the product.

The Zumbach Electronics ultrasonic gauges – one each near the tank entrance and exit – continuously monitor and report changes in tube wall thickness on a control screen as the tubing cools. Further downstream from the tank, a Zumbach 3-axis OD laser gauge provides not only closed-loop dimensional control, but also displays the tube profile for concentricity adjustments. Together, data from the ultrasonic and laser gauges are used to regulate puller speed and cooling-tank vacuum to maintain critical tube dimensions over the production run.

The finished catheter tube then moves through the Conair MedLine Puller/Cutter to produce 6-inch samples that will be given away to attendees. The catheter may also be directed to the ATC Series Coiler, which is set up in this case, to produce a single large coil.

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At Plastec/MD&M West 2021, Conair Group is once again partnering with Davis-Standard and Zumbach Electronics, this time to demonstrate high-volume production of medical swab tubes used in COVID-19 test kits. After extrusion and cutting, these extruded polypropylene tubes are tipped with a flocked nylon swab head and used for collecting nasopharyngeal samples for COVID testing and other medical applications. The demonstration, held in Booth #4024, is among the highlights of the annual trade show being held at the Anaheim Convention Center, August 10-12.

The long, very thin swab tubes (0.09 in. x 5.58 in.) begin as a continuous plastic tube produced from a ¾” Davis-Standard Medical Extruder. As the hot tube exits the extruder die, it passes through a water-filled pre-skinning tool, developed by Conair, which rapidly hardens the fragile extrudate before it enters a 5-ft-long Conair MedLine Model 235 vacuum cooling tank. The tank’s water temperature and vacuum level, managed by a PAVC+ vacuum control through a touchscreen HMI, create gentle pressure inside the warm extrudate, stabilizing tube dimensions as final cooling takes place. A ceramic air wipe assembly dries the product as it exits from the tank. (Like all Conair MedLine products, the Model 235 vacuum tank is based on a proven Conair design, but is specially sized, configured, documented and supported for use in cleanrooms and other controlled environments.)

Just inches inside the vacuum cooling tank, QC measurements begin as the “hot” tube passes through an immersed ultrasonic gauge supplied by Zumbach Electronics, which takes continuous wall-thickness measurements. Some six feet later, after the tube has exited the tank, a second Zumbach instrument – this time, a three-axis laser gauge – continuously measures and displays the OD, ID, and ovality of the now-cooled tube on a display screen. The data from these two instruments are used for two purposes.  First, they provide closed-loop control of critical tube dimensions throughout the production run by regulating puller speed and cooling tank vacuum.  Second, they feed QC and length data that is used by downstream equipment to identify and eliminate any out-of-spec product before it reaches the final collection point.

After laser measurement, the extruded tube continues through a Conair MedLine^® MD-L1-12-D puller/cutter unit, where dual belts (top and bottom) powered by a dual-servo, planetary-gear drive gently pull it forward at speeds precise to ±1/100 percent of setpoints. Upon entering the cutter section, the tube passes through specially-lined stainless-steel bushings where a high-speed rotary knife automatically cuts it into finished swab lengths that fall onto a Conair MedLine 403 takeaway conveyor.

A final product sort is made on the conveyor, using a QC mode available in the MedLine cutter control. This mode receives dimensional and length data from upstream instruments, then digitally “marks” any out-of-spec tube sections using a length offset that enables the cutter to track their position on the line. Then, the cutter can be programmed to cut those sections differently or not at all, or to instruct downstream equipment to handle those sections differently.  In this demonstration, the cutter control removes good tubes from the takeaway conveyor with a puff of compressed air, blowing them into a bin for collection. Out-of-spec parts are left to flow to the end of the conveyor for reprocessing.

The tubing line is controlled by the Davis-Standard eVue Control System.  This is a PLC-based controller with a touch screen HMI that communicates with the Conair and Zumbach equipment to control the entire line from one location.

OTHER CONAIR AUXILIARIES ON DISPLAY

The demonstration of the cleanroom-ready MedLine vacuum tank, tooling, and puller/cutter unit   is supported by several additional Conair auxiliaries:

The polypropylene resin for the swab tubes is drawn directly from machine-side storage and fed to the extruder feed hopper by a Conair AL-2 Access Loader. This self-contained unit is equipped with an angled stainless-steel canister and its own vacuum motor, which can deliver up to 100 lbs/hr to the extruder’s feed hopper. The loader’s straight-through tubular body ensures smooth resin flow, even in low quantities.

Tempered water used in the pre-skinning tooling and vacuum cooling tank is provided by a single Conair TW-P temperature control unit. This TCU, representing the top end of Conair’s Thermolator product line, is equipped with a premium digital HMI, solid-state relays, and a modulating cooling valve.

When the TCU requires chilled water to maintain a precise cooling temperature, it is provided by a two-ton Conair EP2A portable chiller, which features nonferrous internal components (evaporator, pump, reservoir and piping) for long-lasting corrosion resistance. This chiller has a compact footprint with an easy-to-access interior, and a touchscreen HMI control that provides precise temperature control along with extensive diagnostics.

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AutoWave™, a new feature of Conair’s multi-phase, variable-speed Wave Conveying™ system for plastics materials handling, makes it easy to automatically select and use capabilities to protect valuable resins from damage caused by dilute-phase conveying systems operating at excessive speeds.

Designed as a “bolt-on” addition to Conair’s SmartFLX control, AutoWave signals the next stage of development for Conair’s Wave Conveying system, the first resin-conveying system to allow use of multiple conveying speeds and phases. Wave Conveying can move resin in dense material “pulses” (Wave Pulse phase); gentle, rolling “streams” (Wave Stream phase); or conventional, but speed-controlled dilute phase.

Wave Conveying was developed to eliminate the problems associated with dilute phase conveying, which moves resin at speeds that are fast enough to damage the resin through friction/rubbing or impact/shattering.  This, in turn, results in resin waste, angel hair, and fines, and maintenance problems with clogged filters, overheated pumps, or sluggish conveying performance. Especially when abrasive, filled or reinforced resins are transported at high speeds, tubing elbows and some receiver parts can easily wear to the point of failure. There are a number of ways to compensate for these problems but Wave Conveying actually can eliminate them.

“However,” says Nick Paradiso, Conveying Products Manager for Conair, “until now, successful use of Conair Wave Conveying technology has required users to manually program a series of parameters – a conveying recipe – into the conveying control for each receiver in a conveying system. Then, if the recipe needed refinement, additional manual programming or parameter changes would be required.

“The AutoWave feature eliminates virtually all of that manual programming effort” he continues. “Now, to convey a particular resin, a user needs only to use the new Conair SmartFLX HMI to select a source and destination, then open up a new, simplified receiver control screen and select a desired conveying phase – Wave Pulse, Wave Stream or Dilute. The AutoWave feature coordinates with the SmartFLX control and Wave Conveying components to complete the job”

To keep each conveying cycle “in phase,” AutoWave relies on logic and processing power housed in a supplemental PLC, which links to the same high-speed PowerLink™ network that is shared by the SmartFLX conveying control and all primary conveying equipment.  In operation, the AutoWave PLC constantly monitors inputs from Wave Conveying sensors and components; processes them through intelligent conveying algorithms; then, if needed, adjusts the conveying cycle in real-time to assure “in-phase” performance. Because AutoWave continually logs (and references) the real-time adjustments it is making, every conveying solution is optimized with continued use.

Paradiso compares the automated conveying capabilities provided by AutoWave with the adaptive functions of an automobile engine computer, since both continually monitor and manage current performance settings while identifying, “learning,” and then avoiding settings associated with system instability or suboptimal performance. He adds that unlike an engine computer, which is factory programmed, the AutoWave PLC always allows for manual intervention and the addition of new, custom programs.

“This is the closest thing there is to plug-and-play variable-speed conveying,” Paradiso concludes.

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Aiming at a larger share of the equipment market for extruded PVC and polyolefin plastic pipe, Conair is introducing PipeMaster™, a complete line of downstream processing equipment and tooling that offers rugged, reliable, and cost-efficient performance in six size ranges for pipe diameters from 0.4 to 24.9 inches (10 to 630 mm) in up to 5-layer construction.

The line represents a big change for Conair, whose range of pipe processing equipment has, until now, served sizes of 8 in (200 mm) or less, says Ernie Preiato, Vice President, Extrusion for Conair and a 33-year veteran of the extrusion field.  “We understand that extruded pipe processors compete in a very robust and cost-conscious market and can choose equipment from all over the world, with various levels of quality and price points. Our feedback from processors was that they wanted a reliable U.S. source for equipment that delivers high-end quality, output, service and support, but without the huge price tag.”

Preiato explains that the key to Conair’s new, competitively priced PipeMaster line is found in its simplicity and attention to the fundamental needs of processors:  “This equipment – spray tanks, puller/haul-off units, saw cutters, and drop-off tables – combines very rugged construction with simple, but well-engineered controls. It is complemented by an extensive range of the extruder tooling, including pipe dies and calibration sleeves, that most processors need but often have difficulty finding or building at a competitive price.  And, the entire PipeMaster line is backed by Conair’s factory service and support.”

Preiato went on to detail the elements of the Pipe Master line, which includes:

• Monolayer and multilayer pipe extrusion dies optimized to different material types (PE/PP, PVC and others), and for pipe diameter ranges of 2.5, 4.3, 6.2, 9.8, 15.7 and 24.9 in (63, 110, 160, 250, 400 and 630mm). Each die is mounted on a movable, height-adjustable stand and features polished, heat-treated internal surfaces. Interchangeable die pins and nozzles allow dies to produce multiple sizes of pipe. Multilayer extrusion dies can extrude up to five layers in a single pipe.
• Output rates ranging from 550 to 3520 lb/hr (250 to 1600kgs/hr).
• A full range of pipe calibration tools, with options for dry sizing or water-ring cooling and sizing.
• Vacuum immersion, vacuum-spray, or immersion-only cooling tanks with single or dual chambers. All tanks feature 304 stainless steel construction on internal/wetted surfaces, durable painted-steel exterior surfaces, simple frame-mounted controls and fully-adjustable stands.
• Cleated puller/haul-off units that automatically synchronize speed with extruder screw speed control and integrate with gravimetric material dosing for stable production and consistent pipe unit weight. Inside each puller’s fully-enclosed safety cabinet, brushless AC vector motors provide steady pulling force using soft, non-marking cleated pads.
• Servo-driven pipe cutting units, also synchronized to line speed, which measure and cut pipe in a variety of lengths to meet application requirements. Multiple cutter types accommodate different pipe sizes and application requirements, including rotating disc cutters for chipless displacement cuts and planetary cutters for milled or chamfered cuts.
• Pneumatically operated pipe tilting/dump off tables synchronize with line speed to receive and automatically dump finished pipe lengths into stacks for easy removal, packaging, shipment or storage.

According to Preiato, Conair is building a new 6-inch plastic pipe extrusion line at its extrusion laboratory and pilot plant in Pinconning, Michigan, and plans a live demonstration of the new line and its PipeMaster downstream processing equipment in early June.  Conair will also highlight PipeMaster equipment at a customer open house in Pinconning later in 2021.  Details of both events will be announced soon and made available at conairgroup.com.

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Few pieces of auxiliary equipment are as basic to plastics processing as temperature control units (TCUs), and yet the newest TW Series from Conair brings a host of new features and capabilities to this “workhorse of the plastics industry.”

The Conair Thermolator^® TCUs are still available in three standard configurations:

• The TW-V (V stands for value) are offered with ¾- and 2-hp models, both with a 12kW heater and 3/8” solenoid valve. They offer a smaller footprint than previous versions.
• TW-S mid-range units are sized from ¾ to 10-hp and the units up to 2HP also have a smaller footprint.
• Premium TW-P comes in the same size ranges but with much more advanced features.

All the new Thermolator units feature an ergonomic angled face panel for better viewing of the HMI, and the TW-S and TW-P models are the first units available with Conair’s new “common control,” offering a consistent user experience regardless of the machinery involved. The TCU menu structure and navigation, set-point entry, alarm notification, icons, colors, communication protocols, and back-end hardware will essentially be the same as other Conair equipment, including blenders, dryers, etc. These common features simplify operator training and make it easier employees to learn to use different auxiliaries.

The new Thermolators offer one of the broadest ranges of communications options available in the industry, including Modbus RTU RS-485, Modbus TCP Ethernet and, on the TW-P, OPC UA communication enables for 21^st century connectivity. The TW-P is also compatible with Conair SmartServices™, Conair’s cloud-based IoT or “Industry 4.0” solution for machine monitoring and data collection.

Mechanically, the TW-P units can be equipped with solid-state relay (SSR) heater controls that provide the highest levels of precision and long-term dependable operation. They incorporate heat sinks inside the control enclosure and include a beefed-up ventilation fan to dissipate the heat. Mechanical contactors, representing proven technology, and will continue to be offered as standard equipment on all Thermolators.

Also available are modulating valves for cooling in the place of more conventional solenoid valves, which still offer reliable performance and remain available as standard equipment. However, instead of controlling flow by periodically opening and closing like solenoid valves, the modulating valves operate from independent open and close signals so that flow is continuous but controlled. The modulating valves can be opened or closed partially in a linear fashion for greater precision and to eliminate water hammer when flow rates change.

In addition, standard programs can be loaded into the TW-P controller for easy recall. Electrical phase monitoring, an optional flow meter with HMI readout, intuitive help screens for all functions are also provided.

Logically, TW-S and TW-V feature a simpler design. The TW-V has an LCD displays and analog gages. The TW-S has the common-control HMI, with analog gauges as standard (digital optional), and many of the more advanced features of the TW-P also can be added as options.

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