Smart Molding International 1-2021

13 www.smart-molding.com newsfeed Ahead of the “new nor - mal”, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Stay-at-Home economy is starting to unfold. This has seen lifestyles changing dramatically in compliance to national lockdowns, thus resulting in major activities, including work and recre - ation, being held indoors. One way of spending quality time with children and also family members is to enjoy and inspire them to delve into the art and craft sector, which can help develop their creative and thinking skills, while improv - ing interactive relations. For the elderly, who are prone to cognitive decline, art and craft activities are believed to be able to im - prove cognitive health and motor functions. Owing to its ergonomic and functional characteris - tics, TPE is a recommended material application for designing art and craft ac - cessories, specifically for applications that require sealing, soft-touch surfaces and grips. TPEs for durability and comfortable handling KRAIBURG TPE’s ther - moplastic elastomers are frequently used as hard- soft combinations, for soft- touch design, or functional elements as well as impact resistance modifiers in art and craft tools and acces - sories. The THERMOLAST® K TPE series has a wide range of hardness from supersoft <10 Shore A up to 60 Shore D. It can be processed by multi-component injection molding, with a wide range of materials such as PP, ABS, PC, PC/ABS, PCT, PETG, ASA, SAN, PMMA, PA6/6.6/12, POM, PS, HIPS, etc. The selected TPE com - pound range features ma - terials that can come with properties such as thermal stability, abrasion resistance, or scratch resistance. Thus, the THERMOLAST® K materials are ideal for use in producing knobs of stand drawing boards, han - dles of paper cutters, grips of stamping sticks, drawing pens and pencil sharpener surfaces and color pal - lets. Other applications are paddles of the pottery wheel ceramic machine, ring cutters, handle hooks, crochet needle handles, yarn needles, and many other items. Adding variety to applications KRAIBURG TPE materials, including the THERMOLAST® K materials are recyclable and free from latex, PVC, phthalates, or heavy metals. The TPE can be processed through both injectionmold - ing and extrusion. Aside from the various color options available in- house, KRAIBURG TPE also ensures worldwide consis - tent color quality from ex - perts, to inspire creativity in designing applications. KRAIBURG TPE www.kraiburg-tpe.com After just two years, ST BlowMoulding delivered the second ASPI 150.3 DUO machine to the USA. The machine is equipped with parison suction tech - nology, but like all models of the ASPI series, the DUO can also be used for con - ventional blowmoulding. Customers who require higher production rate find the right answer to their need in the ASPI DUO: a mobile extrusion platform shuttles over two clamping units and drops the parison alternatively into each one of the two moulds. This is the perfect solution to double 3D duct production, coupling this performance with ease of use, quick set- up, and process stability typical of single clamp ma - chines. Therefore, the main strengths of ASPI DUO are the doubling of the produc - tion of a single machine in a reduced footprint and the unique mate - rial handling system. ASPI DUO: Double production with reduced footprint The therapeutic art of creativity with TPEs ST BlowMoulding www.st-blowmoulding.com