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MORE THAN JUST STORAGE! Manage your inventory Become better organized Protect your investment Create a safer working environment Our mold management systems are designed to save you space, time & money. GO FROM THIS TO THIS! Visit our website or give us a call to learn more about how we can help you with your die or mold management needs. 716.822.2804 www.PTM.Rapistak.com On-Line Courses for Best Purging Practices Routsis Training, Dracut, Mass., has released four new "Purging for Scientific Molding" online courses. These four training programs—Techniques, Procedures, Compounds, and Analysis—cover best practices for each step in the purging process, with an emphasis on safety. Partici- pants will learn about different purging methods, including small-shot, large-shot, continuous, open- mold, and closed-mold. Routsis Training breaks the purging process up into four phases and explains each in detail—preparation, initial purging, final purging, and production. The also covers advantages and disad- vantages of resin-based purging, mechanical purging compounds, and chemical purging compounds. A Purging Analysis Worksheet is provided so that different techniques and compounds can be used to determine the most cost-effective method of purging your machines, molds, and materials. 978-957-0700 • traininteractive.com Schunk, Morrisville, N.C., has introduced a web-based 3D design tool for ordering customized robot grippers shaped exactly to match a particular part. The new eGrip tool uses part data uploaded by the customer as a STEP or STL file to automatically determine the optimal 3D contour of individual gripper fingers. eGrip works in a 3D environ- ment and allows the user to orient the part, choose the gripper model, and specify the finger material during the design process. Available materials are nylon 12, aluminum, and stainless steel. Once the design is complete, the fingers are made by additive manufacturing (3D printing) and delivered in a matter of days rather than weeks. Additive manufacturing allows metal gripper fingers to be made with a hollow or grid structure, which is standard. This provides weight savings of 10% to 50% compared with conventionally manu- factured gripper fingers. Schunk notes that eGrip works with its PGN-plus, MPG-plus, and EGP models of grippers, all of which can be used in plastics processing. eGrip is said to be applicable to grippers for any type of robot, including Cartesian (linear) and six-axis articulated-arm types. The new eGrip process allows users to order stored finger designs at a later date, and users can even manufacture the finger themselves by downloading, free of charge, the external contour of the electroni- cally generated modules—gripper, top jaws, and part/workpiece. 919-767-1975 • schunk.com Order Custom Robot Grippers via Online Design Tool & 3D Printing INJECTION MOLDING INJECTION MOLDING 74 SEPTEMBER 2017 Plastics Technology PTonline.com Keeping Up W it h Technolog y