For Immediate Release

ADVANCED YIELD CONTROL PROVIDES SPLIT-SECOND FEEDBACK NEEDED IN TOUGHEST EXTRUSION USES YET COSTS FAR LESS THAN OTHER SYSTEMS

New LineMaster AC™ System Boosts Quality, Saves Material, and Cuts Downtime in Lines with Many Job Changes and in Coextrusion Applications

GUANGZHOU, June 21, 2005 - In a simple, low-cost extension of its commercially successful LineMaster™ extrusion yield control technology, Maguire Products, Inc. has combined the dosing precision of the Maguire® Weigh Scale Blender (WSB) used in standard LineMaster systems with the split-second feedback of material-consumption data provided by a loss-in-weight (LIW) hopper, it was announced today at Chinaplas 2005 by Maguire Asia (Stand C 756). The company is introducing the system to the Asian marketplace.

The new LineMaster AC™ (for Advanced Control) system is only marginally more expensive than standard LineMaster yield control, which is priced at more than 50% less than systems available from other suppliers, according to Maguire Products president Steve Maguire.

LineMaster AC yield control retrieves data on raw material consumption by the extruder at the rate of one update every 0.5 sec. "The high-speed responsiveness of the LineMaster AC system makes our low-cost yield control applicable even in extrusion lines where there are frequent ramp-down/ramp-up cycles, such as for film roll changeovers, or where inconsistencies in extrusion rate pose especially great problems, such as in coextrusion,”" Maguire said. "Until now, processors with such operations have had to settle for far more cumbersome and costly yield control systems based on LIW blenders. For example, these conventional systems require separate controllers for a LIW blender and a LIW hopper."

LineMaster yield control centers on a gain-in-weight blender, the Maguire WSB, which provides precise control over batch formulation by sequentially dispensing ingredients, in targeted recipe proportions, from separate bins into a weigh chamber. In the LineMaster AC system, the blender batch is fed into a LIW hopper mounted at the extruder throat. The load cell in the hopper provides updates on material consumption at the rate of one every half-second to Advanced Yield Control Provides Split-Second Feedback Yet Costs Less than Other Systems - 2 the WSB, which is mounted either atop the hopper or on a floor stand. Loaded in the WSB controller is the LineMaster yield control software, which regulates extruder and haul-off speeds in accordance with input on raw material consumption.

Investment in WSB-Based Yield Control Is up to 50% Less than Conventional Systems
Maguire offers the LineMaster AC system as an optional alternative to its standard LineMaster yield control. The LIW hopper initially available for the advance system is the Model XC-LIW 10 unit, with 10-kg capacity. "We expect to have three different hopper sizes, serving throughputs up to 2,270 kg per hour," said Hubert Nerlich, managing director of Maguire Asia. 
The XC-LIW10 hopper adds USD $3,000 to the cost of LineMaster yield control, for a total (including hardware and software) ranging from $5,000 to 8,500, depending on the level of control desired by the processor. By comparison, according to Nerlich, conventional yield control systems are priced in the range of $12,000 to more than $50,000. 

Benefits of Yield Control: Quality Assurance, Material Savings, Reduced Downtime
"WSB-based control can reduce cost and increase productivity in virtually any extrusion operation by automatically regulating extruder throughput, line speed, and, ultimately, the quantity of material that actually goes into a specific length of product," Nerlich said. "In addition, by rapidly adjusting process parameters to achieve target product tolerances, it reduces setup times and saves on startup and job-changeover scrap."

Extrusion accounts for 60% of the 30,000 Maguire WSBs in use, Nerlich noted. "LineMaster technology is readily adaptable in every application where our blenders are now deployed, including film, sheet, coating, pipe, profile, wire and cable, and compounding."

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MAGUIRE PRODUCTS ASIA PTE LTD. is headquartered at 45 Kallang Pudding Road, No. 01-02 Alpha Building, Singapore 349317. Tel: 65-6848-7117. Fax: 65-6744-3370. Email: magasia@singnet.com.sg. The company serves customers throughout South Asia and the Pacific Advanced Yield Control Provides Split-Second Feedback Yet Costs Less than Other Systems - 3 Rim, providing sales and technical service, warehousing Maguire machinery, and supplying spare parts. Maguire Asia operates in China as MAGUIRE CHINA and maintains four offices in that country. 

MAGUIRE PRODUCTS, INC., headquartered in Aston, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., is the world’s largest supplier of gravimetric blenders and liquid color pumps and also manufactures loading systems, granulators, dryers, auger feeders, and related equipment and software. Its customers include injection, blow, and rotational molders, extrusion processors, and compounders. Founded in 1977, Maguire operates five manufacturing facilities in Aston and Smithfield, Rhode Island, U.S.A. The company maintains a network of distributors in the Americas and overseas and has two sales and service subsidiaries: Maguire Europe, which supports customers throughout Europe and operates a distribution center in Tamworth, Staffordshire, United Kingdom; and Singapore-based Maguire Asia. Visit the Maguire Products web site: www.maguire.com.


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