Graco AFD launches new barrel stack designs for LSR equipment
Graco Advanced Fluid Dispense (AFD) has launched new barrel stack designs for Graco F-5 and F4-55 two-component liquid silicone rubber (LSR) injection moulding meter, mix, and dispense equipment.
The updated barrel stacks are available in both multi-pass and single pass designs, and they are easy to clean and assemble and have no tapered national pipe thread (NPT) threads.
End users can save up to 50% of cleaning time over older models and spend more time producing parts.
The new barrel stacks use plastic moulded mixers, which stack upon each other and prevent the side-walling problem that may occur with older stainless steel mixer designs caused by repeated removal and installation.
The plastic mixer also does not suffer from installation damage due to tight tolerance between the hosing and mixer, giving end users the choice to clean the plastic mixer or dispose of it.
Greater clearance makes the new barrel stack easier to clean by reducing thread galling and to reach components to clean them.
The new barrel stacks completely eliminate all tapered NPT threads, from the top of the assembly all the way through the filter and into the regulator.
With all straight threads, the design keeps material out of threaded areas, reducing stress on threads as they come apart and making them easier to put together again.
The barrel stacks now come with two filter options, a 1” diameter filter comes integrated in the stack assembly, but a 2.5” filter option is also available.
Enhancements have also been made to the regulator, which now features an easy-to-clean design with far fewer bolts, resulting in cost savings with no sacrifice in performance.
Flow-through passages on the new regulator manifold are 225% larger, reducing pressure drop through the barrel stack.
The new multi-pass mixer can now run as many as 30 mix elements, compared to older models that ran only up to 24.
End users can configure the equipment to run as few mixers as required – eight, 20, or 30.
The single pass model has 12 elements, which can now be configured so users need not use more mixers than required.
