Thursday, April 15, 2010

Deflashing Molded Rubber Parts

Every rubber molder knows that as mold tooling wears, mold flash can become an issue. As more parts are produced these wear issues become more apparent. The next thing you know is that flash has developed at the gates of the mold, as well as the two halves that clamp during molding. This flash can be removed in many different ways. The type of deflashing that is employed is typically based on the volume of molded parts.

In many molding operations that I have seen flash is an issue. In some facilities hand deflashing is the standard operating procedure. Some parts only take a few seconds to deflash, but intricate parts can take much longer. Even worse, imagine having someone remove flash from these parts all day long, five days a week. The cost to deflash ends up being very high at the end of the fiscal year. This is definitely the case when a small army of employees is deflashing parts by hand every day.

The Cryogenic Institute of New England, Inc. is able to provide rubber molders with many benefits when it comes to removing flash from molded parts. First, you will minimize your costs associated with deflashing. You can either outsource all of your deflashing needs to us or we can supply you with a machine to complete the operation in-house. This will eliminate the need to have personnel in-house to remove flash from molded rubber parts. Next, our process will remove the human/operator variable from deflashing. This means that there won’t be variation from part to part. In addition, our process offers repeatable results with each order you send us. We will create a process recipe that is stored in our Standards for Cryogenic Finishing database. Lastly, our cryogenic deflashing process will protect your parts as they are frozen when they are processed. All critical tolerances and surface finish characteristics will be maintained. Your parts will look the same as they did before they were processed with the exception that the mold flash will be removed. Below is an example of what we can do for your molding operation.



If you and your company are interested in improving the efficiency of your deflashing operation while reducing costs, give us a call at (800) 739-7949 or email us at info@nitrofreeze.com. To view more information about deflashing rubber molded parts visit our webpage.

Labels: , , , ,

Deburr Medical Implants

Medical implants made of different types of plastic are great candidates for our deburring process. It is imperative that medical implants have their burrs removed before they are introduced to the human body. Medical device manufacturers creating medical implants know how tedious burr removal is.

I have had the opportunity to spend time in several medical device manufacturing facilities. It seems that almost all of the facilities have several employees deburring parts by hand. These employees will spend eight hours a day removing burrs from parts under a microscope with very fine cutting tools.

In one particular facility, I remember that it would take fifteen minutes to deburr a PEEK medical implant under a microscope. The manufacturer wanted to stream line their burr removal efforts. After running several samples, it was apparent that we could remove the burrs from many parts in just a little longer than it takes a person to deburr one by hand. As a result, efficiency was greatly increased and costs associated with manufacture were reduced.



If you’re a medical implant manufacturer and you are looking to reduce deburring costs while making the process more efficient, then send us an email at info@nitrofreeze.com. We would be happy to help you solve your medical implant burr issues. We will assist you from sampling, to process creation, to production runs, and if need be cryogenic deburring equipment. For more info on the cryogenic deburring process visit our deburring webpage. If you would like more information regarding the deburring process for implants, call us at (800) 739-7949 or email us at info@nitrofreeze.com.

Labels: , , , , ,

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Nitrofreeze® Cryogenic Services Featured In The Worcester Business Journal

Recently, Matthew Brown a writer for the Worcester Business Journal came to our facility to better understand what we do at the Cryogenic Institute of New England, Inc. I had submitted a press release to him about our cryogenic deburring and deflashing capacity expansion. This boost in capacity was made possible through the acquisition of an additional cryogenic deburring and deflashing system. After reviewing my press release, he asked if he could come in for a tour and interview with the president and founder of our company, Robin Rhodes. I gladly accepted the proposition. The press release regarding our cryogenic deflashing and deburring expansion can be viewed below.

Mr. Brown was very interested in our company as there seems to be many myths that permeate the idea of cryogenics. One of those myths being that cryogenics involves the freezing of humans after death. This process is actually termed cryonics. All the processes we complete in-house are on inanimate objects. Upon meeting with Robin Rhodes, he quickly learned about the revolutionary services that our company has to offer.

Robin took Mr. Brown on a tour of our facility where he had the opportunity to see what we do up close. The tour included our cryogenic deburring and deflashing systems, which are used to remove burrs and flash from machined and molded parts. In addition, he was able to view our cryogenic processing equipment; which includes a unit that can utilize liquid helium. Liquid helium has allowed the Cryogenic Institute of New England, Inc. to reach temperatures as cold as -448°F. This capability has enabled us to complete many projects for a variety of governmental and aerospace agencies.

Mr. Brown’s article titled “Cold Temps Equal Hot Jobs In Worcester” can be read here at the Worcester Business Journal site.

Once the tour was completed, Mr. Brown interviewed Robin about the business and how it was started. The video was included along with the article on the Worcester Business Journal site. It can be viewed below.



If you have any questions or comments, please email us at info@nitrofreeze.com or call us (508) 459-7447.

Labels: , , , , ,

Monday, April 5, 2010

Dry Ice Blasting Generators and Turbines



Last week, The Cryogenic Institute of New England, Inc. sent out its dry ice blasting crew to Cos Cob, Connecticut. A generator that provides additional electric power during peak usage times had been damaged from a failure within the rotor. The owner of the generator, NRG Energy, required that it be repaired and back online before energy usage increases with the warmer weather. Before the damaged windings could be repaired and the entire unit repainted; it needed to be cleaned.

That is where we came in. The contractor repairing the generator stator called upon us to clean the entire system using our dry ice blasting equipment. Dry ice blast cleaning would remove any carbon, flaking paint and other contaminants from the generator stator. In past experiences, they had cleaned the generator assembly by hand with solvents. Cleaning one of these generator stators by hand requires a significant amount of time. We were able to dry ice blast clean the generator stator in far less than two day’s time. This helped reduce the overall downtime of the generator.

The damaged area of the stator required finesse and great precision while dry ice blasting. The generator cleaned up very well and a significant amount of flaking paint was removed from the damaged end of the stator. In addition, the carbon residue was removed so that any new coatings applied to the stator would not be contaminated.

Below are pictures of the generator stator before it is dry ice blast cleaned. You can see the carbon build up, which is a grayish-black color. In addition, you can see the damage to the windings which is at the bottom in white.



The following pictures show the generator stator after dry ice blast cleaning. The carbon has been removed and flaking paint that had been damaged during the failure.



For more information about dry ice blast cleaning generators, turbines and other power generation equipment, please visit our dry ice blasting power generation page. If you have any questions or comments, please call (800) 739-7949 or email info@nitrofreeze.com.

Labels: ,

This blog has moved


This blog is now located at http://blog.nitrofreeze.com/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here.

For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
http://blog.nitrofreeze.com/feeds/posts/default.