Wilmington Machinery will celebrate its 50th Anniversary at K 2022
Celebrating its 50th year in plastics machinery, Wilmington Machinery continues to lead in Low Pressure Structural Foam Moulding Machinery and High-Speed Rotary Blow Moulding, as will be exhibited at this year’s 70th anniversary K Show.
With demand for Low Pressure Injection Moulding machinery so strong, Wilmington has found new applications for vertical structural foam presses. The vertical press has enabled
the installation of almost two machines within the footprint of a single conventional horizontal press. With the platens parallel to the floor, mould changes are 'quick and easy', according to a pre-K press release.
Wilmington’s line of General-Purpose Structural Foam Machines has had a major overhaul since K 2019. The new elevated design allows for large overhanging moulds to clear the floor and part removal under the platen. The updated controls package offers large touch screens with configurable split screens, customisable multi-function trend analysis screens, and OEM trends that can be selected to monitor the process.
The versatility of Low-Pressure Structural Foam machines continues to be used with integrated gas assist controls as well as Wilmington’s redesigned structural web nozzles to channel the gas where needed.
Wilmington has also been successful in helping moulders transition multiple high-pressure moulds to run together in one large platen (up to 108” x 186”) low pressure injection moulding machine, utilising the nitrogen gas to reduce part densities and save on cycle times and raw materials.
With the Wilmington quick die change packages, moulders can use integrated hydraulic die clamp controls and magnetic platens to reduce downtime.
Wilmington Machinery is also bringing its lab/trial capabilities to K 2022 with a new LUMINA 2400HE with 500 tons of clamping force. The lab is available to those looking to trial new materials, additives, fillers, compounds or moulds.
Rotary Blow moulding is still considered by Wilmington to be the fastest way to produce high-quality bottles in an all-electric machine. With processing speeds of 1,200 bottles per minute, including multi-layer applications, Wilmington’s Rotary Blow Moulders can run single, dual, or even triple parison.
Utilising the new and improved bottle takeout device, bottles can be removed from the rotating wheel and conveyed to trimming options without an unscrambling device saving floor space and money.
The team at Wilmington looks forward to returning to Düsseldorf for the next edition of K. During the 2019 event, Rob Coker spoke with Wilmington President Russ La Belle. The full interview is available in EPPM Magazine, 21.6, which is still available to read here.