Headliner Systems
Alliance Innovations, LLC is proud to announce the acquisition of Summit Precision Tool Inc’s, Intellectual property rights and will now proudly design and manufacture complete Thermal form lines, Urethane lines & Marriage lines for Headliner molding cells.
These lines will offer complete turnkey automated molding systems with raw material auto transfer, ovens, presses and exit conveyors.
Keep Alliance Innovations, LLC in mind for your new capital molding system requirements.
The thermal forming headliner systems cover a variety of substrates. Alliance Innovations, LLC utilizes distinct types of heat sources to maintain material processing temperatures such as ovens and also hot plates. Hot plates are generally used with lower temperature substrates. (‘dry’ urethane and low heat resin types). This system is cost effective but cannot reach the processing temperature needed for many of the natural fiber, polypropylene, polyester, PET, and LFRT materials. Industry names of substrates like “Azdel”, “Quadrant”, “Li&S” (natural fiber blend), and TRU material types.
Cycle times of thermal forming lines will vary depending on the substrates and oven types. Alliance Innovations, LLC custom designs manufacturing lines currently in the 42 seconds to 90 second part cycle ranges.Some common commodities that are formed with these materials and cycles times are:
Thermal Forming Configurations
Alliance Innovations, LLC has two main configurations of automatic thermal forming systems. Both systems can be initially designed with manual operations that can be upgraded at a later date if desired to maximize efficiency. The first configuration has the cover stock and substrate materials introduced at the same end of the machine. The molding tool is positioned so it can be changed from the end or optional side when a different part molding is required. The second design configuration has the substrate introduced from the opposite side as the cover stock material.
Both systems have an automatic substrate loader from one or two material stacks. The Alliance Innovations, LLC machine is designed so the substrate stacks do not have to be precisely set into place. This machine design allows for a +/- 6-inch alignment at the substrate load station. This efficient machine design eliminates the need for having the substates restacked into a location fixture.
The substrates are moved into the oven using a pin chain and precisely heated to proper material processing temperature. The material temperature is carefully monitored at all times to ensure it is held within the material processing range to allow proper part forming. Alliance Innovations, LLC has machine designs that utilize different material heating ovens depending on substrate type and the cycle time required for the system. In some instances, two ovens are designed into the system to achieve higher levels of part throughput. Ovens designs can vary dependent on substrate material. Oven designs may include medium wave, short wave, hot air, or hot plate type material heating sources that are employed into the system to maintain maximum system performance.
The cover material can be introduced on rolls (most economical) or precut on stacks. The rolled cover material can be introduced on a single roll or multiple rolls depending on desired system design. We recommend two rolls which will allows our customers to implement material colors on the fly or replace an empty roll without stopping the machine. As the material is pulled from the roll, Alliance Innovations, LLC also offers an optional edge sensor to keep the material in the exacting position to the center line of the machine. The rolled good supplier marks any material flaws during the roll process with a black or reflective tape. This can be detected as the material is in motion and allowed to travel past the blank size then cut and dropped into a bin, allowing material flaws to be removed without interrupting the cycle time of the machine.
After the substrate is heated to proper temperature, the machine press is opened and the parts are index into position. Once the part is formed, it is moved out of the press and dropped onto an exit conveyor. The heated substrate and the cover material are both moved into the press at the same time. The press moves rapidly into closed position until the last one inch of travel for a controlled slow down. It is particularly important to get the heated substrate into the press while at processing temperature for a quality part forming.
The formed part then is moved to the water jet station where it is partially loaded into the nest with a second conveyor. The operator does the final location and initiates final robotic part trimming. Once the robotic trimming cycle is complete, the operator unloads the extra runout material and trimmed part. The part is then placed into a rack or to a post assembly area and shipped to the assembly or sequencing plant.
Thermal form systems will require the following equipment:
- 100-ton press (or what the substrate may require)
- Optional tool change system
- Optional water conditioning units for the form tool (the tool is cooled to set the substrate)
- One or two ovens or hot plates (depending on the substrate and future substrates to be run)
- One or two substrate stack load stations
- Substrate loader with suction cups and pin grippers (depending on the substrate one or both may be used)
- Substrate centering station
- Pin chain transfer (the transfer rails can be adjusted automatically for the board to be run and saved as a recipe)
- Exit conveyor system
- All control cabinets with PLC and needed hardware and software for operating the system
- Guarding and operator protection as required by the plant and OSHA
- Depending on the volume of your product this system can also have manual operations and upgraded at a later date
Alliance Innovations, LLC looks forward to discussing your system needs to tailor the exact molding system for your part geometry and product volumes needs.