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Pultruders need information about their process and the manufacturing environment in order to optimize productivity and control costs.
Development engineering gathers information to establish processing parameters, product quality standards and cost basis for product pricing. Sumerak has developed methods and instruments over the years to assist the process engineer to better understand the processing environment.
- Flexible
data acquisition systems can be provided to collect multiple
data points for temperature, pull force, line speed, resin
flow and resin level as well as ambient temperature and
humidity.
- Fully configured
instruments like GELSTAR and TOPSCAN developed by Sumerak
in 1984 and 1994 respectively provided a pre-configured
test and printing capability for process exotherm tests
and SPI Gel tests. Both of these instruments have outlived
their technical lives as electronics have evolved and become
obsolete. The need for such a simple process evaluation
platform has not diminished. And now, PUL-VISION,
the next generation Pultrusion Process Optimization Instrument,
is available for purchase from Sumerak Pultrusion Resource.
- Measurement
of key process parameters requires utilization of sensors
for temperature, pressure, pull force, flow and level. The
popularity of high-pressure resin injection methods for
controlled VOCs in the production environment, or the use
of reactive resins such as polyurethane, has necessitated
the ability to display and trend resin injection pressures.
A Resin Injection
Process Meter has been configured for this purpose.
- Heating
devices and passive heat transfer products such as heat
pipes, insulation and interface modification products can
be provided for any pultrusion task. Knowledge of proper
sizing of heat load and die geometry ensures maximum effectiveness
and lowest cost of operation through proper selection.
- Coming
Soon! A fresh take on an old test method of use
to pultruders in formulation development and quality control
- The SPI Gel Test Method. Accuracy and consistency is necessary
to assess conformance to formulation recipes and agreement
with vendor Quality Certificates of Analysis. Identifying
non-conforming resin batches is the first step to controlling
pultrusion product quality.
Manufacturing engineering and production supervision is charged with producing quality products 24 hours a day in a challenging work environment. Operators are often consumed with full responsibility to provide raw material, service in-feed systems, fabricate and package finished product. The monotonous slow paced pultrusion production process often results in over-looking the obvious and gradual degradation of product features that are natural with scale build up. Even though process engineering may have a well defined process parameter set, the process environment includes what happens before and after material enters the die. Assistance can be provided for:
- Sensing
raw material motion, presence and tension can ensure proper
fiber architecture will be maintained throughout the production
period. Alarm and control actions can be configured to alert
the operator to material outages before scrap results.
- After product
exits the die sensing
the presence or absence of features or details on products
can alert the operator to product deficiencies before scrap
accumulation results in costly write offs, incomplete order
fulfillment and customer returns.
- A large
amount of product scrap derives from improper cut off length.
It's a tragedy to have a 30 foot long piece of scrap due
to a short length below allowable tolerance 0.250 inches,
for example. This is especially common when pulling multiple
streams of product where gripper slippage occurs. Sensing
and controlling product length can be achieved by low cost
means that pay back in less than one day of production in
many cases.
Allow Sumerak Pultrusion Resource to Sensor
your Process!
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