Partnerships

     

    JEC Paris 2010

Awards

     

    An Award-Winning Company! 

    eBusiness Award Winner

    Regional Winner - Shell Springboard

    Champion - Broadband Britain

    E-Commerce Award

    Biomat.net Top 5 Site

    The Latest editions of RTM today and DSM Composite Resins newsletters are exclusively available from the netcomposites website, RTM today is published by Plastech TT Ltd, whilst Tanks & Pipes, Sizings & Binders, Automotive and Marine are published by DSM Composite Resins. Click the RTM or DSM image below to link to the relevant pages. 

    RTM Today Spring 2007
    DSM Composite Resins

     

AEWC Centre Receives Funding to Increase WPC Extrusion Capacities

The Advanced Engineered Wood Composites (AEWC) Center at the University of Maine recently received a $200,000 grant from the Maine Technology Institute (MTI) to expand its Wood-Thermoplastic Composite (WPC) processing capacities.

AEWC’s expansion plans also received support from industrial partners, Correct Building Products, Pallmann Pulverizers Co. and Colortronic North America.

Currently, the AEWC Center’s ISO 17025 certified laboratories offer a broad menu of testing and product development capacities in plastic materials, adhesives, structural panels and assemblies, wood products and materials and composite materials.

The new funding and industrial support will allow AEWC to build on its current extrusion R & D in 6 major categories: compounding and pelletization, agglomeration, injection moulding, co-extrusion, foamed extrusion and analysis and testing.

Pelletization equipment will allow full utilization of compounded WPC material from the Center’s two extruders: a Davis Standard WT-94 Woodtruder and a Cinncinnati Milacron CM55 conical twin screw extruder.

Agglomeration – the process of particle size enlargement in which small fine particles are gathered into larger masses, clusters, pellets or briquettes – will be supported by Pallmann Pulverizers Co. and Colortronic North America. These companies will source an agglomerator at the AEWC Center to allow development and refinement of AEWC’s WPC compounding techniques.

MTI funding will enable the purchase of an injection molding system which will expand in-house capacities for the determination of operating and mechanical properties of various WPC formulations. This system will be used as a tool to gauge and establish base-line performance data of various formulation compounds thus enabling the AEWC Center to provide mechanical performance data to companies interested in either adding new product lines or improving current products.

With support from Correct Building Products and MTI, the Center will purchase components needed to co-extrude on its CM55 conical twin-screw. The benefits of this co-extrusion process include reduced material costs, increased surface stabilization, and improved colorfastness. Another aspect of the expansion of extrusion capacities will be the Center’s development of foamed extrusion expertise.

Finally, the Center will expand its analysis and testing capacities with the purchase of two pieces of equipment: a thermogravimetric analyzer-differential thermal analyzer (TGA-DTA) to examine thermal kinetics and degradation of wood and polymers during WPC processing; and a capillary rheometer to study the fluid-flow viscosity of molten polymers.

Publication Date: 11/02/2005

WWW Link: http://www.aewc.umaine.edu

WWW Link: http://www.mainetechnology.com


Subscribe to our Composite News Feed Subscribe to our Composite News Feed

Other items you may also be interested in.

  • NEWS

    Bayer MaterialScience opens €22 Million Nanotube Facility

    Find out more
  • Axion LOI to Supply Thermoplastic Material for Composite Containers

    Find out more
  • Gibson/Jushi Environmental Stewardship Program to be Presented at ACMA Conference in Las Vegas

    Find out more
  • PRODUCTS & PUBLICATIONS

    Management, recycling and reuse of waste composites
    PRICE (GBP) 160.00

    More Details
  • Biomedical composites

    More Details
  • Mechanical Properties and Performance of Engineering Ceramics and Composites IV

    More Details
  • Your shopping basket is currently empty:





Hot Topics

  • Latest Products

    Management, recycling and reuse of waste composites
    Price (GBP) 160.00
    Find out more
  • Latest News

    Bayer MaterialScience opens €22 Million Nanotube Facility Read More
  • Latest Events

    18th International Conference on Composite Materials
    21-26 August 2011, Jeju, Korea
    Booking details
  • Latest Jobs

    Application Specialist Process & Testing
    Read More