Davis-Standard, LLC will promote the company’s recent expansion and equipment innovation in Hall 8.1, Booth D19, during CHINAPLAS 2018 in Shanghai, April 24-27. Among Davis-Standard’s latest developments are the recent acquisition of Maillefer, the company’s strengths in Suzhou, expanded dsX flex-pack™ technology for extrusion coating, and new stretch film capabilities. Davis-Standard will also exhibit a MEDD extruder (Medical Extruder Direct Drive).
Davis-Standard’s acquisition of Maillefer in 2017 expanded the company’s wire and cable, pipe and tube equipment offering, and added facilities in Finland and Switzerland to better serve customers, including those in China. Wire and cable capabilities include automotive, building wire, coaxial cable, LAN, fiber optic MV, HV and EHV among others. For pipe and tube applications, this includes automotive, heating and plumbing, irrigation, medical, micro-duct, off-shore and custom lines. The Maillefer addition complements Davis-Standard’s presence in China with Davis-Standard (Suzhou) Plastics Packaging Machinery, Co., Ltd. The Suzhou facility is Davis-Standard’s manufacturing base in China, offering equipment for FPVC medical tubing and co-extrusion applications as well as assembly of electrical control panels, extruders and gearcases.
In addition to manufacturing, Suzhou is home to an R&D laboratory to support Asia’s growing medical market. The lab is equipped with technology such as the MEDD extruder (being shown) to test a range of rigid and flexible products as well as FPVC tubing for IV & fluid delivery. Applications include microbore tubing, multi-lumen and catheter tubing, endotracheal and tracheotomy tubing, radio-opaque tubing, bubble tubing, taper tubing, pipette tubing and multi-layer tubing, among others. The MEDD is specifically engineered for these tight tolerance applications due to its compact design, energy efficiency and materials versatility. Advantages of this extruder model include linear movement, a replacement feedsection liner, interchangeable barrel assemblies and Windows®-based control system.
“Our location in Suzhou has been instrumental to our growth in China,” said Sekaran Murugaiah, Davis-Standard Vice President of Business Development, Asia. “For example, one customer has made Davis-Standard
their preferred extruder provider due to our regional presence and consistent equipment performance. We also continually build upon equipment strengths such as our dsX™ product line as well as manufacturing and service capabilities addressing the needs of the Asian market. Chinaplas is an ideal platform for this exchange and we anticipate another productive show.”
The latest dsX flex-pack model is the 300S, which is a single station extrusion and lamination line with benefits specifically engineered for the Asian flexible packaging market. Design of the dsX flex-pack™ 300S is a collaboration between Davis-Standard’s teams in the U.S., Germany and China to ensure that pricing, machine footprint, speeds and output, and the ability to make shorter runs would accommodate demands of converters. In addition, Davis-Standard will offer a tandem configuration of this machine called the dsX flex-pack™ 300T for the Asian flexible packaging market. Davis-Standard plans to have its first dsX flex-pack 300S demonstrated during a customer open house in Suzhou in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Davis-Standard also anticipates that its new stretch film line with the DS S3 winder will be beneficial to Asian converters. Quality control, versatility and efficiency are hallmarks of this technology. The line offers a compact machine arrangement, ease of servicing, excellent profile control, consistent roll quality and an intuitive control package. It is engineered for producing thin films from 31-to 51-gauge (7.8µ to 13µ) at high speeds. Davis-Standard’s side-by-side DS S3 overlapping winder is essential to this capability. The DS S3 winder enables maximum slit widths for hand-wrap, machine-wrap and jumbo rolls, supporting multiple market segments on one winder. Films discharge out the front of the line to a common side to simplify roll packing and future automation. Cores are also same-side loaded from the back to prevent disruption of packing activities. There is an auxiliary lay-on roll to eliminate top-wind waste during transfer, optimizing roll quality and eliminating outer wrap transfer waste. All features are advantageous for high-grade film operations.
For more information about Davis-Standard prior to Chinaplas, visit www.davis-standard.com.