Four Removable Hoppers Permit Fast Color Changes; Optional Pneumatic
System Provides Easy Access for Cleanout
CHICAGO, June 19, 2006 - The world’s smallest gravimetric blender now has a big
brother with similar talents: While the new MicroPlus™ blender from Maguire
Products, Inc. accommodates processing machine throughputs of 100 to 350 pounds
(45-160 kg) per hour instead of the 100-pound maximum of the widely used
MicroBlender®, it provides the same user-friendly features for reducing downtime
during color or job changeovers, the company announced today at NPE 2006 (Booth
5507).
Like the MicroBlender, the MicroPlus blender has four hoppers that are
removable for quick cleanout and product changeover. The hoppers are typically
used for natural resin, regrind, color, and additive. While the dispensing
systems in three of the hoppers are pneumatic vertical valves, there is a corner
valve in the hopper for regrind, which sometimes flows poorly compared with
other ingredients. “The vertical valves are particularly important for precise
dispensing of minor ingredients like colorant, while the corner valve provides
enhanced flow for bulk ingredients or materials that have large or variable
particle sizes,” said B. Patrick Smith, vice president of marketing and sales.
For machine configurations involving use of loaders mounted atop the blender,
Maguire has developed an optional, patent-pending pneumatic system that further
reduces changeover time by automatically lifting the hopper lids on which the
loaders are mounted, easing the process of gaining access to the hoppers and to
the bottom of the loaders.
More than 4,000 MicroBlenders are now in operation, according to Smith, and
Maguire recently enhanced the system by converting the hoppers to stainless
steel for greater resistance to
corrosion and surface damage, and by incorporating new-design vertical valves
with greater resistance to jamming. These improvements are also standard on the
new MicroPlus blender.
Another standard feature on the MicroPlus is a newly enhanced controller
developed for the entire Maguire® line of blenders, with a number of
improvements for greater user friendliness, broader communications with other
systems, and more versatile deployment. Alternatively, customers can specify the
company’s touchscreen controller, also new, with wireless connectivity and
built-in Ethernet architecture. (See accompanying news release on both
controllers.)
###
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,
serves customers throughout South Asia and the Pacific Rim. Visit the Maguire
Products web site: www.maguire.com
