Plastrac developed the ColorStream, which blends additives into resin at ground level, in response to a customer request. | Photo courtesy of Plastrac
Equipment supplier Plastrac recently released the ColorStream, a system that blends additives with pelletized base resins used in injection molding and extrusion processes.
With its ColorStream system, “Plastrac sought to separate the metering of additives from the system handling and feeding of the main component resin,” the company wrote in a release. This goal was accomplished by metering additives at floor level.
The Edgemont, Pa.-based company first developed the ColorStream in response to a customer request for a system that removed the need for employees to go to a second floor to clean or change out the additive hoppers. So, Plastrac moved all cleaning and color mixing stages to the floor level.
“We developed this unique approach to streaming colors and other additives by rethinking all the components and operation of our traditional blending systems,” said Ken Bullivant, president of Plastrac and inventor of the ColorStream, in a release. “An evaluation version of ColorStream was successfully tested in our customer’s facility over the past few months. Not only did it solve a customer problem, it is going to save them a lot of money for years to come.”
The entire ColorStream system is mounted on a compact cart with wheels for easy movement.
According to the company, the system has safety benefits, as employees are not traveling up and down to tend to machine cleaning. It can reduce operational and maintenance expenses, because it uses less energy than alternatives and many of its components are self-cleaning.
The system was introduced at K 2019 in Dusseldorf, Germany last month.
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