The customer is one of the worldwide leading manufacturers in the filtration industry. In the production process, filter endcaps has to be potted to glue the filter material together. During the Covid-19 pandemic, filtration industry has boomed and the customer has to optimize and increase its production.
Requirements
The company has to meter, mix and apply two materials – both two-part polyurethanes. The dimensions of the filter endcaps are rather large, and the original cycle time is tight – 75 seconds needed to dispense per endcap. This requires a large flow rate.
Solution
METER MIX ® provided the customer twin LiquidFlow 50 metering and mixing machines with gear pump technology to achieve the large flow rates. Each machine processes one of the polyurethanes. The materials include fillers in the A-component, the polyol side. Because of this, METER MIX ® equipped the machine with a hardened abrasive-resistant gear pump to handle the material effectively. The customer dispenses onto a turntable to ensure even dispensing of the filter glue.
Thanks to the new metering and mixing machines, the customer was able to shorten the cycle time for the endcap filter potting from 75 seconds to 17 seconds on average per part. This allowed the company to increase their production volume extensively and meet the demand, all the while ensuring the adhesives are mixed and metered effectively. More endcaps are being produced per hour and there are minimal failures returned during quality inspection. Further, the company could dramatically cutting waste costs.