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Small Dosage Gravimetric Feeding – Page 2 of 2

A White Paper On Gravimetric Feeders for Small Dose Requirements, Sponsored by LIAD

Product rejects as a result of an aberration in masterbatch additive can occur in any sized product, but generally means that not enough additive was added to the resin. Yet as the product becomes smaller, or in other applications like semi-transparents where the additive dose needs to be very precise, the likelihood of a reject increases. (As gravimetric feeders naturally vary from the set point, the likelihood of a small product reject can easily reach 5%-10% according to some manufacturers, and possibly even higher as the product size becomes smaller.)

For this reason, some producers of small products will over compensate the additive, or in certain applications, even manually mix the additive with the resin.

As the owner of TAV Medical, a plastics producer which contracts for some of the world’s largest medical device manufacturers said, “It’s unbelievable that I am saying this at this time, but until now I have not found a solution for small product dosing. The simple truth is that when processing small jobs, no gravimetric or volumetric feeder was able to provide me with piece of mind in terms of efficiency, accuracy and consistency.”

With its vibrating channel and unique design, the new feeder consistently dispenses the required dose, effectively solving the problem of dose variation.

Weighing Specialty Additives

Specialty additives such as flame retardants or anti-microbial additives can be expensive, potentially reaching hundreds of dollars per kilo. And with every unnecessary pellet added to the injection mold, producers are literally throwing away money.

The producer of the new gravimetric feeder has over 30 years expertise in weighing applications, and has designed the new additive feeder with a level of accuracy not found in alternative small dose feeders.

To obtain better weighing accuracy and greater additive control, the company designed the vibrating chamber from a unique, light-weight material. This design offers multiple benefits, as it significantly improves the accuracy of the weighing chamber.

New Equipment Sales Channels

About the White Paper’s Sponsor: LIAD

LIAD Weighing and Control Systems, a veteran engineering company with over 35 years’ experience in the plastics industry, is recognized for innovative products which significantly improve plant efficiency, and innovative techniques for dosing masterbatch and color additives in particular. LIAD was the first company to introduce a number of auxiliary products for plastics manufacturing which are today considered standard, including a gravimetric feeder adjacent to the injection molding for precise measuring of color pellets.

In addition to ColorSave-Micro, LIAD is now introducing other innovative auxiliary equipment for injection molding and extrusion which promise to further increase efficiency and generate greater factory profit.

* BlendSave™ – A high-precision automated multi-channel weighing system for combining selected mixtures of masterbatches. The system reaches accuracy to within .03 grams per weighing channel.

* MultiSave™ – An automated multi-channel weighing and blending system capable of simultaneously feeding as many as 24 separate processing lines, while significantly reducing the amount of hoppers, blenders and required floor space.

* SpectroSave™ – A differential spectrometer used at the extrusion line for color quality control.

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