By Bruce Geiselman
PTi has introduced the eG-Series of configurable roll stands, a streamlined version of its G-Series roll stands.
The new roll stands are the most compact that PTi offers and benefits sheet manufacturers with limited production floor space. In addition, the series is ideal for in-line thermoforming operations, according to the company.
“One of the other attributes or benefits of the eG is when you’re running in-line thermoforming equipment, the overall system length becomes critical,” President Dana Hanson said. “Maintaining web temperature as it enters into an oven system of a thermoformer is super critical. The way the eG is configured, it happens as a derivative benefit to allow us to provide customers with the absolute shortest footprint, the most compact footprint, that we have of any of our offers on roll stands. That's by virtue of some of the engineering changes that we made. It lets us get that footprint down, which is super beneficial in in-line thermoforming.”
To achieve a compact footprint, the company has consolidated the routings for water, hydraulic, air and electrical utilities.
Comparing the footprint of the eG-Series to other roll stands is difficult because the equipment is available in various configurations. However, Hanson offered one comparison.
“If you take the most-compact G-series and you compare that to the most-compact eG-series, you might recognize a 25 percent footprint differential, which is substantial,” Hanson said.
The roll stands are available in J-stack or vertical-down configurations. They come with rolls ranging in width from 36 inches to 66 inches and with diameters ranging from 12 inches to 30 inches.
The eG-Series, like the G-Series, produces high-quality sheet through precise control of cooling temperatures, while incorporating design features that simplify the extrusion and cooling process, Hanson said. Patented features include PTi’s Linear Roll Stand Traverse technology.
“One of the foundational or main platform patents is the linear bearing traverse, which maintains lifelong precision of the framework and the mechanism as it moves back and forth to the run position, which in the lifecycle of a machine is thousands and thousands of times,” Hanson said.
Traditional roll stands move on casters rolling on a track on the shop floor. However, PTi’s Linear Roll Stand Traverse technology, used throughout the G-Series and now in the eG-Series, uses a more precise and smooth method.
“Instead of having wheels that roll on a track, these are linear bearings that glide on a precision rail,” Hanson said. "The amount of precision is astounding when compared to something that would roll on the concrete floor on a V-groove track.”
The eG-Series, like the G-Series, also includes vertical nip-height positioning, chrome roll safety lockout and TRC (transfer roll coating) technology, the company said.
Processors obtain exact sheet thickness and proper cooling because of features that adjust temperature and positioning according to operating conditions, the company said.
Bruce Geiselman, senior staff reporter
Contact:
Processing Technologies International LLC, Aurora, Ill., 630-585-5800, www.ptiextruders.com
Bruce Geiselman
Senior Staff Reporter Bruce Geiselman covers extrusion, blow molding, additive manufacturing, automation and end markets including automotive and packaging. He also writes features, including In Other Words and Problem Solved, for Plastics Machinery & Manufacturing, Plastics Recycling and The Journal of Blow Molding. He has extensive experience in daily and magazine journalism.
