#smartflow

SMARTFLOW® SWAP Valves and FasTie quick ejector systems reduce changeover time related to ejector tie-in and water line removal by up to 90%, increasing the uptime of plastics manufacturing machinery for plastics manufacturers.

When it comes to plastics manufacturing, speed is everything. Without the right tools, manufacturers can face lengthy gaps in production during changeovers, and more, decreasing profitability and productivity.

With tools such as SMARTFLOW, SWAP Valves and FasTie quick ejector systems, injection molders can dramatically reduce mold change time for faster, more efficient workflows.

FasTie Quick Ejector Tie-In Systems

A FasTie system quickly “ties in” the mold ejector plate to the press ejection system within an injection molding press, helping to increase the speed of changeovers.

Ejector tie-ins are notoriously difficult without ease of access where ejector tie-in takes place. FasTie systems mount directly to the machine, minimizing mold change time with an easy, cost effective setup. The system is available in three sizes (1-inch, 1-3/8-inch, and 2-inch) and is ideal for most injection molding machines. A FasTie system is accessible and compact, and easily installs into existing molds and ejector plates with no additional machining required.

Traditionally, ejector rods are manually installed in difficult-to-reach areas. With this setup, changeover time can be lengthy, which results in time that the molding machine is not productive. The FasTie system automates the connection between the machine and the mold, alleviating the need for manual ejector tie-in.

Depending on the machine and molds, the FasTie system can save injection molders up to 90% of the time they would otherwise have to spend on tying in their ejector systems.

SMARTFLOW SWAP Valves

SWAP valves are simple and manually selectable valves that supply both cooling water to the mold during processing, and air to purge the water from the mold before a mold change.

These valves tie directly to the water systems that cool the molds and, like FasTie, easily connect to your existing equipment. With SWAP valves, manufacturers don’t have to worry about making a mess when changing over lines that are full of water. Instead, the valves purge the water from the lines prior to unhooking. The entire process only takes 2-3 minutes before all hoses can be disconnected.

SWAP valves bring speed and cleanliness to your manufacturing operations, transforming a task that was once time-consuming and labor intensive into an automated operation. Draining lines can be both messy and unsanitary for the work environment, creating a risk of slip and fall accidents and other safety hazards. With SWAP valves, plastic molders can have peace of mind in a fast, secure and clean operation.

Reducing Downtime from the Ground Up

SWAP valves and FasTie systems can provide up to a 90% increase in efficiency, cutting downtime between changeovers to a fraction of what it used to be.

At Plastixs, we work closely with our clients to ensure the solutions they invest in are tailored to their exact needs. If you’re not sure which tools are right for you, contact us and we can help you identify the best products for your business.

Burger & Brown Engineering names Plastixs the SMARTFLOW 2021 “Domestic Distributor of the Year”

Consistency and quality are central to products carried by and customer service of Plastixs – so we’re proud to be honored with the SMARTFLOW Domestic Distributor Award for 19 years in a row.

The award, which acknowledges superior sales and service of SMARTFLOW products, is presented by Burger & Brown Engineering, the maker of SMARTFLOW products. A long-time distributor of these products, Plastixs has won the award every year since 2003.

“We’re always proud to be recognized as the Domestic Distributor of the Year,” said Mickey Blyskal, President and CEO of Plastixs. “To have earned this every year for nearly two decades is both an incredible honor and validation of the effort our team puts into doing things right for our customers. SMARTFLOW products enable us to provide our clients the highest quality solutions for quality, productivity and efficiency.”

SMARTFLOW products frequently top our “customer favorite” lists, including:

Water manifolds

Flow regulators

Flowmeters

Mold temperature regulators

Swap valves

For custom projects, Plastixs collaborates with SMARTFLOW’s team to design, prototype and assemble products to exact specifications. With SMARTFLOW and the combined engineering and manufacturing expertise of Plastixs, we deliver custom, turnkey solutions to customers.

Custom Manifold Assemblies Built for Your Needs

Across industries, Plastixs delivers custom-built manifold assemblies using the highest quality components on the market – including SMARTFLOW flowmeters, flow regulators, swap valves, and more. Critical to connecting components within production systems, manifolds distribute fluids across various circuits, ensuring precision, and consistent quality.

From system design to material selection, connection type, fluid monitoring, and more, the team at Plastixs can customize a manifold assembly to your exact needs, utilizing SMARTFLOW products. To learn more about custom manifold assemblies, read our eBook.

Award-Winning Customer Service & Product Assistance

We collaborate closely with clients to understand their needs, provide custom solutions, and eliminate production obstacles. With the help of Burger & Brown, we offer world-class products for your injection molding and other plastics manufacturing needs.

With over two decades of industry experience, our team is honored to receive this award and we look forward to another year of partnership with the Burger & Brown team.

For injection molders, flowmeters offer cost-effective, automated monitoring of water flow to prevent product defects, mold damage and downtime.

Consistent flow of water is critical for ensuring the right temperature and pressure needed for injection molding parts with precision and maximizing production throughput.

When the flow of water is inconsistent, it can adversely affect dimensions of the part, leading to costly part defects.

For medical injection molding, even a microscopic part defect on a heart valve or other medical implant can pose a serious risk to patient safety. If water flow drops, due to a hose being crimped, mold cooling channel rust, or something else affecting water flow, the temperature in the mold can change. This can affect dimensions of the part, leading to defects that are not visually apparent – down to a few thousandths of an inch.

If the flow of water drops far enough, or a mold is turned on without water being supplied at all, costly mold damage and downtime are likely in addition to part defects.

Flowmeters help you prevent all of these problems.

How Electronic Flowmeters Work

The SMARTLINK™ Tracer®VM Interface collects data from TracerVM flowmeters installed within an injection mold cooling circuit. If flow drops you are alerted via email to take corrective action.

Aggregating up to eight separate flowmeters, the SMARTLINK TracerVM Interface provides power to each flowmeter and receives voltage signals for temperature and flow. Additionally, the interface offers:

A mobile app to monitor temperature and flow conditions in real time

Simplified multiple TracerVM installations

Gasketed, water-resistant plastic enclosures

Ethernet port to connect to local network

USB port provides mobile device charging plus flash drive connection

SMARTFLOW® Data Logger PC software included

Avoiding Production Downtime

Flowmeters can also ensure injection molding machines are “ok to run” to prevent costly damage to the mold if an operator starts the machine without the water supply turned on.

To do so, flowmeters are placed on the return inlet for the mold temperature controllers and tied into a data card on the machine, other type of alarm or hot runner control system that will visually indicate when the correct water temperature and flow are in place to start operation.

This is especially important for medical injection molders: a $0.50 defective part could threaten the integrity of costly medical devices. A large, world-class medical injection molder started using flowmeters two years ago. In the first month, the flowmeters prevented three events that would’ve cost $30,000 to $50,000 in defective parts reaching their medical device assembly lines.

We learned of another situation where flowmeters weren’t being used and an injection molding machine producing plastic bottle tops was turned on without water flow to the mold. As a result, a mold plate cracked that took five weeks to replace on a critical production mold that could not afford any downtime.

Identifying the Right Flowmeters

Monitoring the temperature and consistency of water flow is critical to part integrity, quality control, protecting molds, and meeting production goals, which is increasingly difficult to do with the lack of skilled labor and increasing automation that otherwise wouldn’t catch these problems.

Previously, flowmeters were only used by the largest injection molders that discovered how valuable and inexpensive they are. Machine manufacturers are increasingly incorporating flowmeters on new machines, but many injection molders would benefit from using them on molds now in production.

Additionally, other equipment can be tied into flowmeters easily, including hot runner temperature controllers and RJG process monitoring control systems. If you already have an RJG system, a flowmeter board might only cost about $500.

Not sure where to start? The Plastixs team can help you determine the right technology for your needs. We have decades of experience helping clients find cost-effective solutions to ensure part quality, maximize uptime and prevent costly problems.