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Expand
Your Product Line
by
Alain Dorais, President
Besser Proneq, Quebec, Canada
Mold
Articulation
Equipment used for
manufacturing concrete products is constantly evolving. In the past, the
only moving parts in a mold were the stripper head and shoes, which were
mostly mechanical. Today, equipment such as Uniform Press Top heads,
retractable plunger sections, core pullers and fully articulated molds
is creating an enormous pool of opportunity. These new innovations have
spurred expanded product lines and superior quality products.
The hydraulic and
pneumatic technology available today allows more sophisticated and
versatile equipment to be designed and manufactured. Two prime examples
include the high-speed pneumatic core puller, which minimizes cycle time
and can pull simple forming cores, and the heavy-duty hydraulic core
puller, which has virtually no limit to the number and shapes of the
forming cores it can retract.
Simple front and back
articulations such as removing small forming cores or part of a liner
using hydraulic cylinders mounted on the mold have existed for many
years. Now, mold articulation* allows a variety of concrete products in
a variety of shapes and sizes to be produced by a standard concrete
products machine. Non-linear products, which were never thought
possible, can be created by moving the liners out of the way before
stripping the unit from the mold.
Figure
1
Mold articulation
goes a step further with the four-way retraction process. For example,
the four walls of the mold can retract allowing a concrete unit to have
a smaller dimension on the bottom than on the top. Figure 1 above
illustrates a unit that has a mid-section that is larger than the top
and bottom sections. This is just one example of the amazing
possibilities that result when using four-way retraction.
The movements of
four-way retraction are powered hydraulically and the mold components
are positively locked mechanically. The positive lock is an essential
part of the articulation. Due to the enormous compaction power of the
Besser concrete products machine, hydraulics alone could not hold the
mold together.
Mold articulation
technology enables producers to expand their market potential and to
offer solutions for the most innovative designers. If you have a special
type of concrete product that you would like to produce contact Besser
for information on mold articulation technology at 800.363.2400 or
450.966.3000.
Additional examples
of products that can be created with mold articulation.
*Mold articulation
refers to the movement of parts that are inserted into, pushed in,
pulled out or pivoted away from the mold before feeding and stripping.
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