Quadrant: An Insight into Casting, RAM Extrusion and Compression Moulding
- By ai_admin ai_admin
- 15 Feb 2018
Ai Engineering Plastics and Laminates, as part of the Vink Group, have an established partnership with Quadrant EPP, a leading global manufacturer of high-performance thermoplastic materials.
As one of their chosen UK distributors, we recently had the opportunity to visit their manufacturing plants in Holland and Germany, where we were able to see first-hand the processes of casting, RAM extrusion, and compression moulding in the production of polyamide (Nylatron® and Ertalon®) and polyethylene (Tivar®).
The opportunity to visit Quadrant’s manufacturing plants and witness these manufacturing processes first-hand has given our teams a real insight into how various plastics are made and has armed us with knowledge we can pass on to our customers!
Casting
Our teams on the Quadrant plant visit were lucky enough to see the casting process of polyamide, in which 2 containers are filled with raw materials and heated. An activator is added to 1 container whilst a catalyst is added to the other container thus causing the initiation of the polymerisation process. Polymerisation occurs when the contents of the 2 containers are filled into pre-heated moulds and mix with each other. After a period of time the material hardens and can be removed from the mould. Benefits of casting include: products with larger dimensions, higher mechanical strength and reduced stress.
Some of the materials cast at Quadrant’s Holland plant include:
- Ertalon® 6 PLA [PA 6; natural (ivory)* / black / blue]
- Ertalon® 6 XAU+ [PA 6; black]
- Ertalon® LFX [PA 6 + oil; green]
- Nylatron® MC 901 [PA 6; blue]
In addition to stock shapes, Quadrant also do custom cast shapes. Custom casting is often more economical than machining or injection moulding, particularly for small or medium quantity production runs of parts that are too large or too costly to injection mould. It can eliminate or reduce machining operations, reduce material wastage and can also produce parts of virtually unlimited size and thickness.
The production of custom cast parts or nylon castings offers many advantages over conventional parts production technologies:
- Capability to manufacture small or medium quantity production series
- Capability to manufacture large parts
- Elimination or reduction of machining operations
- Improved product performance
- Scrap reduction
Compared to machining stock shapes, custom casting offers:
- Special formulations possible
- Material savings up to 40 % possible
- Costly machining time is avoided
RAM Extrusion
At Quadrant’s Germany plant we were able to see the process of RAM-extrusion – Special Profiles. We saw how the polyethylene in powder form was gravity-fed into a chamber then heated to sintering temperature and melted into a gelatinous form. A hydraulic ram then pushed the material from the chamber to the die and then through the length of the conveyor.
This production technology offers special benefits:
- No material wastage; rough rule of thumb: the material needed is less than the material taken away
- For sliding/guiding profiles this is the most economical production method as of approx. 1000 m per profile [tool cost compensation]
- Highly complex geometries possible
- Almost 100 different extrusion tools and more than 20 high technology extrusion machines guarantee fast availability of extruded products.
Compression Moulding
In this process that we saw, the preheated polyethylene was placed into an open, heated mould which was then closed with a top plate and pressure was applied to force the material into contact with all areas of the mould.
Quadrant engineering plastics are produced using state-of-the-art compression moulding technology. Polymer know-how and modern production technology are prerequisites for the functionality, quality and economics of Quadrant engineering materials. Compression moulded shapes are available in a broad variety of dimensions, thicknesses and diameters.
Ertalon®, Nylatron® and Tivar® are registered trademarks of the Quadrant group of companies.
