Category Archives: Composite Tooling

AIN Plastics Expands – New Branch in St. Louis, MO

After a year or more of research and hard work to expand, AIN Plastics is pleased to announce the opening of a new AIN Plastics Distributor Branch in the St. Louis Missouri area.

New Business Locations Don’t Happen Overnight

This week I had the opportunity to talk with Chris Urban, Branch Manager for AIN Plastics new St. Louis Area Distribution Facility. I asked him what it took to get a new branch opened up. Chris said they started with finding the right location, which turned out to be in the same building as the St. Louis area ThyssenKrupp Materials NA Facility (AIN Plastics parent company since 1993). Then came finding the right equipment which includes a brand new saw for custom cutting orders and finding just the right people with both customer service and previous plastics experience. Chris noted they wanted to hit the ground running from their first day of business. He went on to say:

“We have worked hard in preparation over the past year prior to our opening and we are very excited to see our hard work pay off. ThyssenKrupp Materials NA, AIN Plastics Division did a great deal of research regarding this project. St. Louis is an ideal location to further extend our distribution. From this branch we will be able to provide customer service and quick turn around on orders to Missouri and surrounding states.”

Chris also said he wanted to thank all the AIN people that came to St. Louis from other branches to support his team for the first few days. “Having the support of the entire AIN Plastics company has made starting the new branch a great experience for everyone. We feel truly supported and connected to everyone in the company.”

AIN Offers More than Materials – It’s about Value Added Services

I asked Chris about the services they will be offering. Chris says the new AIN Plastics distribution branch offers a comprehensive list of value added services including:

  • Close tolerance custom cutting of orders
  • Customized Inventory and stocking programs including just in time delivery solutions
  • A vast inventory of sheet and rod materials, some of them highly specialized
  • Professional team with years of plastics industry experience
  • ThyssenKrupp Nationwide Logistics for the best possible delivery

More Manufacturers are Choosing Plastic Due to it’s Many Benefits

Chris talked about how the selection of plastics is changing rapidly due to its value as a lightweight component in manufacturing, it’s ability to be reused and recycled, and it’s cost. Plastics are often an affordable material compared to more traditional resources such as metal, wood, or glass, and they often outlast and outperform those materials. Researchers are always developing even better plastics. “We have a team in place that can help customers sort through and not just find a plastic that will work, but rather the right plastic for their application.”

GPO, Materials for O&P, TeflonPlastics, Plastics, and More!

When it comes to what plastics the St. Louis AIN Plastics branch will stock, Chris gave me a short rundown and said this doesn’t come close to covering all the materials we have:

  • Industrial Plastics
  • High Pressure Laminates
  • Engineering Plastics including
    • ABS
    • Acetal
    • Cast Acrylic
    • Polycarbonate
    • Radel R
    • Semitron
    • Techtron
  • Composite Tooling products
    • RAMPF Styling, Modeling, and Tooling Boards
    • RAMPF Close Contour Paste and Casting Materials
    • Thermoform Materials
    • Epoxy Casting and Laminating Resins
    • Foundry and Pattern Materials
  • Plastic Tubing including Medical and Food Grade
  • FDA compliant plastics for medical and food service industries
  • Silicone
  • Rapid Prototyping
  • DuPont TM Vespel® (AIN Plastics is the Authorized Distributor)

Well, you get the idea, it’s a long list and that’s just the beginning. Chris says the best way to learn more is by visiting the website ainplastics.com or better yet by giving them a call at 877.246.7700.
The AIN Plastics Distribution Facility is located next to the ThyssenKrupp Materials NA facility:

59 Interstate Drive
Wentzville, MO 63385

Hours of operation are Monday – Friday 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM.

For more information regarding the new AIN Plastics St. Louis Area Branch

CONTACT: Christopher Urban

TEL: 877.246.7700

DIRECT: 636-698-6295

FAX: 636-327-4369

EMAIL: christopher.urban@thyssenkrupp.com

That’s it for this week’s news. Look for our other posts where we look not at ourselves, but at the world of plastics. What’s new, what works, why certain plastics are good in specific applications and more. IF you do want to learn more about AIN Plastics and our history check out the “About Us” page on our site.

See you in the blogosphere again soon!

Lisa Anderson

Marketing Manager
ThyssenKrupp Materials, NA
AIN Plastics Division

www.ainplastics.com

 

Join me for an introduction to the world of plastics!

Your Guide to Plastics Past, Present, and Future…

Lisa Anderson, Marketing Manager ThyssenKrupp Materials NA, AIN Plastics Division

It’s hard to believe it’s been over 6 months since I began working at AIN Plastics. Hard to believe because everyday is packed full of lots of projects and lots of things to learn about plastics. There have been new people to meet and old friends to reconnect with, and it’s all been really fun, so the time has truly flown by.

As I’ve gone through these months I developed a hunch. My guess is, when it come to plastics for manufacturing and specialty uses, a lot of you in many industries are in the same boat because there are so many material choices out there. So I’m inviting you to take the journey along with me to learn about plastics. What are plastics, what are the different types, why are they being used more and more, and what plastics will work for your applications. In fact, I hope you’ll share your applications and experiences as well.

While we are at it we’ll take a stroll through plastics history too. I’m a huge history buff so every time I hear about a plastic I like to dig in and find out how it all started. These days plastics seem to surround us, but it wasn’t that long ago we relied on other materials such as wood, metal, and glass for everything from IV ‘bottles’, to baby bottles, cooking utensils, sporting equipment. Hmmm – what were shower curtains before plastic? I’ll get back to you on that one, or if you know, please share! We love comments.

So let’s get started! Today I’d like to stay in the present and take a look at a helpful piece that came across my desk. As we all know there are literally thousands of types of plastic materials out there and more are hitting the market all the time, so anytime there is something that can help you to select the best one for the job we here at AIN will be sure to share it with you. After all, getting the right material helps everyone. The item that came across my desk is in regards to Materials for seals and gaskets.

So let’s start with a couple of questions –  
• Do you make seals or gaskets?
• Do you need your seals and gaskets to be Teflon®?
• Do you have a high temperature application?
• Do you need FDA compliant seal and gasket material?

The most common choices for seals and gaskets are UHMW – PE, Teflon, and PEEK. These are all great options, but another material called Fluorosint® has, until now been a little less known for seals and gaskets however, it is proving to give material specifiers another excellent option for certain higher temperature applications. Two Fluorosint® materials are FDA compliant giving you options for special applications in food or medical applications.

In selecting material for gaskets and seals temperature and pressure are the two biggest factors people generally consider. This chart easily shows where TIVAR® UHMW-PE, Teflon®, Ketron® PEEK, filled and unfilled PTFE, and Fluorosint® and Duratron® fit in as material options. Test results clearly show that Fluorosint® and Duratron® fit very well into a gap left for high temperature and high pressure applications. To make your selection even more exact, Quadrant (manufacturer of Fluorosint®) has developed several Fluorosint® materials (207, HPV, 500) and each was specifically developed with a certain application area in mind.

Below is a Material Selector Guide that covers all of these materials in two easy formats. One simply compares how a product does in relation to heat and pressure. The other compares Fluorosint® to Rulon®, another common material for seals and gaskets. You can also compare the FDA compliant materials.

Material Selector Guide for PTFE Seal and Gasket Material

From materials suitable for average heat and pressure to the highest, this chart will help you to easily cross reference common seal and gasket materials.

 

Chart comparing Rulon to Flurosint

Compare test results of Fluorosint and Rulon and see at a glance what material fits your application.

As we go forward I’ll be looking at each of these products on an individual basis. But, if you see something here you like and you want to know all the details right now, we do have more information available on our website: Fluorosint Product Information. You can also talk to one of people. We have a knowledgeable staff that can help with any questions you may have about seal and gasket materials. Just call 877.246.7700 and you will be connected with the AIN Plastics office nearest you.

If you are along for the journey that’s great!  If seals and gaskets aren’t your thing, no worries, I’ll be talking about all sorts of other materials as we go. In fact, you can sign up and get our posts in your mailbox so you don’t miss the latest.

I hope you find these charts helpful in your search for that just right seal or gasket material. We’ll see you in the blogosphere again very soon!

Lisa Anderson

Marketing Manager
ThyssenKrupp Materials, NA
AIN Plastics Division

Machined and Finished Epoxy Paste

Paste Application Process – Gets the Wow Factor!

Yup, this one gets the Wow factor folks. Many of you maybe familiar with tooling paste from years back. Well, it’s been a lot of years since paste was introduced for composite tooling applications and it has traveled light years in terms of product and equipment quality.

 

AIN Plastics + RAMPF GROUP + Tartler Machines
AIN Plastics has been selling RAMPF GROUP Tooling board for many years, in fact, we are one of the largest distributors of tooling board in the country. So, when we had the opportunity to take on RAMPF GROUP’s new paste materials we wanted to be on board right away.
RAMPF Group, a strong leader in the tooling board manufacturing business developed three versions of RAKU-TOOL® Close Contour Paste; each is a 1 to 1 mix ratio that applies easily, even on vertical or overhead surfaces at thicknesses up to 40mm. The paste applies to numerous substrates including acrylic, wire mesh, foam, or tooling board to name a few.
When machined, the cured paste creates very little dust and finishes to an extremely smooth surface that can be finished as needed.
To make their product even more successful RAMPF knew having the right dispensing equipment was also a must. So, RAMPF Group worked diligently with Udo Tartler, founder of Tartler machines, who began creating two-part meter mix equipment in the early 1980’s.

Udo Tartler, President of Tartler Machines

Udo Tartler, President of Tartler Machines

Mark Davidson, RAMPF Sales Manager noted that “Tartler is on a constant path to create new and better equipment and to refine their existing equipment. They have listened to the needs of both the end user as well as the product manufacturers, and that’s why we wanted to partner with them. He went on to say “once we were confident in our product and working with Tartler we brought the process to AIN Plastics who immediately saw the value.”  Unlike some past machines that ran on high pressure, Tartler equipment runs on a safe low pressure system. The equipment is easy to use, cleans up within 15 minutes, and outputs a smooth steady flow of paste at a consistent viscosity. The RAKU-TOOL® Close Contour Paste and Tartler dispensing machine is a far cry from the early days of epoxy tooling paste systems.

AIN Plastics Offers Custom Application Services
In addition to supplying RAKU-TOOL® Close Contour Paste, John Shepherd, President of AIN Plastics, announced that AIN is now available, on a per job basis, to complete custom applications of RAKU-TOOL® Close Contour Paste for customers at the AIN Madison Heights facility. In fact, by the time of this post, AIN has already completed four large paste application projects. John Shepherd noted, “We listened to our customers who voiced concerns about using paste in the past. The first concern is the time to apply the paste and the time until it can be machined. Typically the two-part epoxy paste is fully cured in 24 hours. But, for many places running an assembly line the cure time has been a limiting factor in their ability to put this product to use. Places that don’t do large volume also noted the cost of the equipment as a factor. We are looking to be an asset to our customers and we realized this was a great opportunity to fill a gap in an industry that can really benefit from this product.”
The value to building custom shapes can be a huge savings in both time and material. It also eliminates issues such as glue lines and how to handle left over pieces of board and the end product is fantastic. By using the new service at AIN Plastics customers can take advantage of the benefits of the using paste without investing heavily in assembly line time or in equipment purchases. Meanwhile those companies that make the investment in the dispensing equipment can be assured of excellent product availability and customer support.
At a recent demonstration of the product dispensing, visitors were all impressed by the quality and ease of use that RAMPF Group, Tartler Machines, and AIN Plastics are now able to provide with this new joint venture of product, equipment, and customer sales and support.

For more information on RAMPF Groups RAKU-TOOL® Close Contour Paste and other tooling products please visit our website: AIN Plastics Composite Tooling Materials

OR –
Download a .pdf

Technical Data Sheets for RAMPF Group RAKU-TOOL® Epoxy Close Contour Paste:
CP 6050
CP 6070/6072
CP 6100

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