Machine retrofits

This review is subject to pros and cons. With a logical approach the outcome depends on various factors such as extent of damage, professional feasibility to rebuild, time to be back in production, and availability of money. Even though the initial capital expenditure is much lower than for new screws and barrels (plus other equipment), the long-term economical value can be questionable. As an example machine retrofits can be tailored to meet the customer s performance requirements at 40% to 70% of a new tool. In order to provide a good... 

Proper machine cycle settings are also important for energy savings. The injection speed control system (available on new machines as an option or as a retrofit on old machines) optimizes the speeds available for specific time intervals. The injection high volume pump is available for a fixed time period and is then dropped out of the system. This time period should coincide with... 

The SCORIM process employs a unique hardware component that is retrofitted to a conventional injection molding machine. Located between the injection nozzle and the mold, this unit contains a pair of pistons that exert pressure on the melt after it is injected... 

Recent experience has shown that these machines tend to process whole soybean more efficiently if the material is preconditioned with steam prior to extrusion. This finding, together with other recent work, has shown that simple extruders can be made more versatile and efficient in the context of producing compounded feed products (such as aqua feeds and pet foods) if raw materials are preconditioned with steam before extmsion. This has led to the retrofitting of many of these dry extenders with steam conditioners and has hence blurred the distinction between dry and wet/steam extenders (8). It has thus become a little confusing to continue to call these simple machines dry extmders. A typical dry extmder with a preconditioner is shown in Figure 2. 

Many OEMs include only the minimum equipment for lubrication as a part of the original bill-of-material. Anything else is optional and therefore frequently left out. While these options add to the cost, many generate real value when selected. Following is a list of lubrication-related hardware and accessories that, where suitable for a particular machine and application, could and should be factory-installed. If not, they will need to be retrofitted onsite. ... 

Reliability and maintainability Machines and systems will be specified, designed, retrofitted, and installed with greater reliability and ease of maintainability. 

Another monitoring system, which can be retrofitted to a range of makes of machine, can measure catalyst flow rates down to 6 ml/min (equivalent to 0.5% catalyst) pumped with the resin at an output lower than 1 liter/min. It has two electronic flow indicators, 100 mm scale meter, and 10-element light-emitting diode (LED) display. 

Case A Retrofitting of Existing Refiners to Debottleneck Output of a Modern Paper Machine... 

Case B Retrofitting of Existing Refiners of a Paper Machine to Switch from Flat to Semi-extendable Sack Kraft Papers... 

The combined effects of retrofitting of the refining system and the dryer hood of the sack kraft machine delivered significant improvement in the cross directional profiles and absolute values of the two key properties of sack kraft papers, namely CD stretch and CD TEA. 

Equipment maker Milacron Inc. is manufacturing the machine and retrofitting IM machines under a nonexclusive equipment license firom PlastiComp Inc. of LaCreseent, MN, USA. Dow Automotive of Auburn Hills, MI is a nonexclusive resin supplier with development capability. They will use the process to complement Dow technology being transitioned from Europe. Owens Corning of Toledo, OH will provide product development expertise and will serve as the exclusive supplier of glass fiber rovings to Pushtrusion molders. 

The RE methods are applied to various sizes of machine elements, from the production of replacement gaskets, presented in [26] to the retrofit of turbines presented in [27]. The main reasons for the turbine retrofit are extending turbine life time, improving reliability and operational flexibility, decreasing specific heat consumption and improvement of inner thermodynamic effectiveness. Typical steps which include RE methods in a retrofit process are shown in Fig. 12.20. 

Air turns combine the features of a circular web path with a flotation dryer. They use single-size air bars and support a web without contact on a cushion of air while the web follows a circular path and is simultaneously heated and dried. When using an air turn to float and dry, recirculation air is required. Usually, the jet foil cylinder approach provides this option. Air turns were initially proposed for retrofitting paper machines by replacing steam-heated cylinders located... 

What kind of a loss in profits will your enterprise suffer if a machine that is not working to capacity retrofitted for an hour and is thus powered down "... 

You can see that the enterprise has no loss in profit except for the hour the machine operator takes to retrofit the machine, provided he would otherwise be occupied with other value-added work or had to put in overtime. Why do we not employ the unused machine time more frequently for retrofitting Why should this time suddenly costs as much as the machine hour rate It is thus ridiculous economically to push lot sizes up through statistical non-recurring costs like the na-chine hour rate. 

By far, the largest and fastest growing capacity for bicomponent fibers is in the area of spunbonds. There are approximately 50 such lines worldwide. About a third of these are pilot lines for product development, a third is older lines, and a third is modem curtain spinning lines with draw aspirators. It is estimated that 15-20% of all spunbond capacity worldwide has bicomponent capability. Much of this capability is not presently being used to make bicomponent products however, intense activity to develop new bicomponent products is reported and is reflected in patent applications. The increase in bicomponent spunbond capacity is continuing at a rate of over 10% per year. This increase is fueled by both new lines and retrofitting of older lines. As new bicomponent products are developed, this activity is expected to increase rather than decrease or stay level. It is estimated that within a few years over half of all new spunbond machines installed will have bicomponent capabilities (Wilkie, August 2009). 

Manufacturers shouldbe required to provide illruninated displays on all new machines - possible retrofit improvements should be considered for existing machines. 

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