October 10 2014
New IR TDO System is a Welcome Addition for Customers Seeking to Develop and Test High-Temperature Polymers
Parkinson Technologies, Inc. today announced the latest addition to its on-site technology laboratories: an infrared transverse direction orientation system (IR TDO). This new system expands the company’s lab capabilities to allow customers to run high-temperature specialty polymers at narrow web widths.
“The IR TDO is a small scale tenter-frame plastics stretching system that uses infrared technology to heat the material, versus our full BIAX pilot line that uses gas-fired hot air convection heating,” explains Ken Forziati, Director of Business Development at Parkinson. “Our customers will now have the option of running different specialty polymers, such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), at temps as high as 1,300°F compared to 650°F on the BIAX line – and this will yield materials with novel finished properties. The IR TDO will also give our customers the ability to work with smaller quantities of precursor material and at narrower web widths. That allows customers to work more efficiently with high-value and sometimes scarce raw materials.”
The IR TDO system is located at the Parkinson Technology Labs at its headquarters in Woonsocket, separate from its main Marshall and Williams Plastics Extrusion and Orientation Pilot Lab (BIAX Lab). Since this new system serves as a stand-alone lab, one customer can book the IR TDO while another is using the full BIAX line. Like Parkinson’s other labs, the IR TDO can be leased for a variety of purposes, including developing new products, conducting trials, creating test samples, and optimizing processes. In some cases, customers can even opt to produce low-volume quantities of commercial materials.
Parkinson Technologies plans to expand the capabilities of the IR TDO to run other types of high-temperature specialty polymers in the near future.
“Research and development is the lifeblood of the plastics industry, and it’s a driving force in so many of our customers’ businesses,” says Parkinson Technologies President and CEO, Peter Termyn. “By providing more opportunities to innovate, we facilitate customer success more than ever and we are proud to offer them a world-class research facility with the capabilities to enable breakthrough polymer solutions.”
