Trexel has announced several additions to its portfolio, including a new capability for its MuCell foaming equipment, a mold-design service dedicated to foamed parts and its first chemical foaming agent.
Trexel's MuCell process involves the controlled use of gas in its supercritical state to injection mold or blow mold microcellular foam parts. With MuCell, users can lightweight parts, reduce machine clamping tonnages and trim cycle times.
Trexel said that its T-Series dosing units now are available in the T-Series satellite version, which has a central booster station that allows one unit to supply satellite control stations at multiple injection molding machines with the supercritical fluid used as a physical blowing agent, said Michael Ludwig, the company's business director for Europe. The booster station is offered in two sizes having different throughputs.
The new satellite version offers molders an easy and lower-cost means to adopt MuCell technology on multiple machines, Ludwig said. For example, compared to conventional T-Series systems, capital costs can be cut by as much as half through the use of satellites on four machines with a central booster.
Trexel also is offering 2Limit, a new service it announced at NPE2018 that helps molders optimize the design of foamed products. 2Limit is a joint venture between Trexel and GK Concept GmbH, Dresden, Germany, an engineering and mold design firm. 2Limit offers an array of services, including feasibility review, part design, MuCell filling analysis and turnkey mold design and construction.
Through 2Limit, a molder can determine how it can maximize the benefits of foam molding in a given application. 2Limit personnel can explain how MuCell can reduce wall thicknesses, and how to increase the flow length and integrity of a part, or how to fill a mold from a thin section to a thick section without processing or quality issues.
Trexel also announced that it is offering chemical foaming agents as an alternative to its physical blowing agents. Its TecoCell product contains calcium carbonate nanoparticles of 0.08 micron or less to produce highly uniform cell structures that are evenly distributed throughout the molded part. TecoCell H1 is a specially formulated concentrate for foaming polyolefins and PS. TecoCell GT is for foaming PET, PET glycol, nylon and other high-temperature polymers.
TecoCell offers cost and processing advantages compared with MuCell in some applications, Ludwig said. TecoCell also doesn't require the initial capital investment needed to incorporate physical blowing agents.
Mikell Knights, senior staff reporter
Contact:
Trexel Inc. Wilmington, Mass., 781-932-0202,
