Trexel and Teratonics announce the signing of an exclusive distribution agreement for Teratonics' non-destructive testing solutions for the plastic injection molding market. Marketed by Trexel under the brand name TrexelVision, this breakthrough technology makes it possible, for the first time on a production line, to carry out dimensional inspection and detect defects inside molded plastic objects.
Partnership from distribution worldwide
" TrexelVISION is a natural addition to the Trexel product portfolio. Our customers are eager to see inside
of the parts they produce thanks to our foaming technology. TrexelVISION brings a powerful solution to the market, as it opens up a new opportunity for on-line inspection. "This cooperation underscores Trexel's commitment to developing as a market leader in high-tech foaming solutions for the injection molding industry. " Teratonics benefits from Trexel's strengths: a long-term approach to the market for its innovative foamed plastics production equipment and the expertise of its sales, engineering, training and maintenance teams. "explains Uli Schmidhammer, President of Teratonics.
Controls fast, simple and precise non-destructive testing
TrexelVISION is based on Teratonics' patented technology for in-line non-destructive testing. This breakthrough terahertz technology is ultra-fast, non-contact and non-hazardous, as it is non-ionizing. TrexelVISION thus provides a solution for controlling the most demanding products and plastics manufacturing processes in the factory of the future. TrexelVISION can perform dimensional measurements, such as wall thickness measurements with micrometric accuracy, and detect defects in injection-molded, compact or foamed parts. Defects may include bubbles, metallic foreign bodies, plastic inclusions, density variations, thickness variations or shrinkage.
A new approach inspection inside injection-molded parts
Trexel's expertise is based on many years of experience in the manufacture of plastic injection molded and foamed parts. Due to variations in pressure and temperature during mold filling, these parts sometimes exhibit local variations in cell size and density. Until now, analysis of internal structures has only been possible off-line, often using destructive testing or complex and dangerous methods. TrexelVISION makes it possible to analyze the internal structure of parts on-line, on 100 % of production, and facilitates the assessment of process stability. What's more, this analysis can be used in the molding of compact parts to detect variations in fillers, bubbles and the like, which are not usually visible. TrexelVISION's on-line checks can also detect variations in internal structure linked to various process parameters and wall thickness control. This enables process tolerances to be defined. TrexelVISION also proves highly effective in overmolding applications, as the precise location of inserted objects can be determined using this technology.
TrexelVISION online and offline functionality
The TrexelVISION system integrates a broadband source and detection system in the 0.1 - 1 THz spectral range, in which many common polymer materials exhibit low to medium absorption. In addition to our terahertz breaking equipment, TrexelVISION includes a control and acquisition unit with proprietary software for scanning the part and processing the multitude of data resulting from the measurement. Using a robot carrying the object to be analyzed, the system enables rapid, automated scanning of three-dimensional objects from their CAD files. Communication between the device and the robot can be adapted to many common types of robot used in injection molding plants, including state-of-the-art cobots. As a result, in-line inspection can often be carried out directly at the injection molding machine exit with an existing extraction robot.
Learn more: www.trexel.com