The Dray Manufacturing Injection Regrind Machine
Dray Manufacturing is excited to introduce its latest technology. The patent-pending Injection Regrind Machine (the IRM) will extend extrusion technology to the injection molding industry by enabling the usage of up to 100% flake regrind or off-spec material.
With almost 50 years of feed screw design and manufacturing experience and expertise, R. Dray has developed innovative solutions that redefine the standards of efficiency in the plastics manufacturing industry. Since patenting the first and most widely used basic barrier screw design in the United States in 1972 (Patent #3,650,652), R. Dray has led the world in industry advancing patent technology.
The IRM represents R. Dray’s most recent effort to revolutionize the molding industry with a technology that will significantly reduce operating costs for molders while improving part consistency and quality in all sizes of injection molding machines.
The wide variability of materials contained within recyclable feedstocks is one of the most challenging processing obstacles for extruders and molders reclaiming scrap plastics. The post-consumer or industrial scrap materials recyclers are processing into pellets is far from uniform. Molders using feedstocks that vary in material composition are forced to halt production and change the screw to one that processes that material at the desired throughput and quality. Thus, screw changes can happen often - leading to a loss in up-time, and the screw may not process the scrap material perfectly, which can further hamper throughput rates and productivity. A processor may also have to set aside factory space to house its growing inventory of screws.
The IRM Explained
The IRM borrows from a concept long deployed in extrusion molding-- namely, the use of a “shot-pot” or secondary screw and barrel designed to melt up to 100% regrind material in a two-stage process. Instead of a standard reciprocating screw within a barrel preparing and injecting melted plastic, the IRM features a “shot-pot” with a plunger, instead of a non-return valve. Material is melted by the extruder and then conveyed into the shot-pot before being injected by the plunger into the mold. The system requires an additional feeder screw and barrel alongside the machine’s existing barrel, with single or double venting added to more efficiently discharge gas from any volatiles in the material.
The IRM, in contrast to current industry standard technology, has a small diameter, hydraulically controlled plunger—resting inside a larger plunger-- that can accurately control “pack and hold,” thereby enabling molders to create parts with the desired shot weight to virtually eliminate “over packing” and to further increase cost savings to the molder.
The Technology Behind the IRM
The IRM consists of a combination of existing R. Dray screw design patents working in combination with one another to achieve spectacular results.
Based on the company’s extruder screw designs, which consist of three patents in the single and double-vented configuration, the IRM Technology can be retrofitted into existing injection molding machines or built into new ones.
If you like to know more about the IRM technolody please contact us.
rdrayirminfo@gmail.com | 214-368-5424