Marine Industry Axson Introduces a New Range of Extrudable Pastes
December 27 , 2005
FThe expertise of the Axson Group's R&D department has developed a new performance line of extrudable pastes called SC167, SC300 and SCP270 which allows for industries such as automotive, aerospace and marine to create high quality models and tools. All these pastes combine high mechanical characteristics, easy of use and machinability.
New evolutions in design technology and more particularly the development of new high speed milling machines set very important changes in motion in the automotive design industry. By allowing a faster conception and realization for the designer and stylists, these designs can be produced quicker and cleaner as well as more efficiently. The clay, plaster, machinable boards and the manual modeling pastes, traditionally used in the motor design, have to leave their hierarchy behind to new more successful materials developed just for these new technologies.
Axson, working closely with car designers, has developed the new SC 167, an extrudable paste which presents mechanical characteristics perfectly adapted to the needs of the stylists and the designers. The use of the SC 167 extrudable paste is applied in relatively thin layers of 1 3/16" to 1 1/2" (between 30 and 40 mm), on polystyrene or polyurethane foam pre-machined forms. When applied within the application specifications, the SC 167 extrudable paste presents the advantage of no bond lines, ease of use and enables to obtain a homogenous form with a perfect appearance after manufacturing and painting.
"Axson has followed the technical changes of today's industries with the advantages of the new extrudable paste series. We have taken the next step in offering affordable tooling products and the cost effective means in order to meet the designers' needs of the automotive industry", said Patrick Blosse, Axson Director of International Development.
Axson and Karnic Powerboats Ltd.: Extrudable pastes for Leisure Boats
The first stage to build a cruising boat is the production of the plug. It is on that plug that a mould will be laminated, in which the parts constituting the boat will be produced. The material used is therefore essential.
Karnic Powerboats Ltd., founded in 1993 in Cyprus, design, produce and distribute leisure fishing boats and walkarounds in a range of 15' to 26' (4.6 to 8.0 m). Due to the constant increase of the boats length and the renewal of the range, Karnic has rapidly decided to acquire machining equipement to cut the wooden models and the numerous plywood bulkheads. Facing growing demand, they quickly turned to the extrusion paste technology. Polystyrene blocks are rapidly and roughly machined 10 mm below the final dimension. SC 167 is then easily extruded on a 25 mm thickness and left for at least 48 hours to avoid shrinkage and exotherm. Once it has polymerized, the paste is then machined to the final dimensions. Considering the machining capacity, the model of the hull has to be produced in sub-models, which are then assembled after milling. The models are then bonded to form the final plug.
"The use of the AXSON SC 167 extrudable paste has allowed a better planning of the tool production, and an important decrease in the tool production leadtime, coming from 18 months down to 6 months for the latest model of our range, 22' long, with up to 24 models produced. Shrinkage and distortion problems encountered with other techniques have totally disappeared. The excellent self-bonding properties of the paste lead to precise joints and the obtaining of continuous, smooth and exact plugs" indicates Nicos Karaolis, founder of Karnic Powerboats.
With a global turnover of 55 millions Euros, AXSON group is a global supplier of solutions for the high performance composite industry. As the European leader of resins and composites for markets such as design, tooling and prototyping, its international coverage with 11 subsidiaries and many production sites world wide enables its presence to be felt in every industrial field. AXSON has developed more than 1000 references which find their place from model to assembly, in moulds and tools to industrial parts.
