Materials and Fastening

While many installations of sealing gasket profiles fit the pattern of a common design, such as enclosure door seals, EMKA aims to be able to see from a quick glance, typical applications that often new sections are needed to fit new equipment designs.

  For lubrication-free sliding in a very tight space, igus has introduced a new coating material and service for metal components. The iglidur coating provides the components with the wear and sliding properties of the maintenance-free iglidur materials.

Maintenance-free, hygienic and clean: these are the component requirements of the food and packaging industry. For this reason, designers of film and labelling systems rely on smooth-running guide rollers with lubrication-free plastic components from igus. To help choose the right roller for a specific application, igus has developed a new online tool for guide rollers called xiros expert.

Developed in South Australia by Advanced Material Solutions (AMS), the super-strong titanium membrane is unaffected by salt or chemicals such as chlorine and can be adjusted to screen out specific materials down to 0.05 microns. A commercial system has already been installed at a meatworks in Victoria where the filters removed fats, oils, grease, blood cells and reduced e coli levels from 240,000 down to less than 20 parts per 100ml.

‘Industry 4.0’, ‘Internet of Things’ and ‘Smart Factory’ - these concepts are no longer a vague promise of what is to come. Instead of planning maintenance at fixed intervals or reacting to failures or faults, continually monitoring the health of a machine enables predictive maintenance. Repair or replacement is then only carried out whenever it is actually necessary. At the same time, unscheduled shutdowns and the associated costs can be eliminated.

A series of battery-powered torque hand tools from Norbar Torque Tools has been introduced by RS Components. The EvoTorque Battery Tool (EBT) series has been specifically designed to deliver improved performance and data traceability in safety-critical and heavy industrial operations.

TR Fastenings offers a broad range of enclosure hardware products for use in a number of applications in industries including telecoms, oil and gas, HVAC and transport. As an increasing number of industries use cabinets, secure boxes and other enclosure units to house electronics, wiring and other systems in public places, there is also a need for high quality enclosure hardware and mechanisms to be an integral part of the design.

For Air Liquide, protection of the valving on their Argon gas bottles had become an important issue. These gas bottles are primarily used for metal fabrication and inflation of diving suits and a cap is needed to protect the industrial valves from ingress of dust and dirt and also to ensure that the bottle has not been subject to any gas leakage.

For anyone keeping pace with the automotive sector - or general news for that matter – it’s easy to predict the future. Electrification is here to stay, with sales of full EVs and hybrids growing exponentially year on year. This revolution has forced OEMs to create entirely new vehicle platforms to accommodate new, innovative powertrains - resulting in mass redesigns across all of the major brands. This focus on delivering optimised platforms for future dynasties of electric vehicles is bringing aluminium components to the fore, and of course, the Tier 1 suppliers such as Mark Aluminium Die Casting (MADC) who provide them.

The when and why of Plastic springs is rarely a simple matter, made as they are from highly engineered composites and technically advanced new generation materials they are produced with lightweight and high-performance in mind for application in especially demanding industries such as medical, pharmaceutical, electronics, aerospace and similar. Typical properties include operation at elevated temperatures, neutral magnetic characteristics, light weight, low thermal conductivity, electrically insulating and ability to recycle at end of life.