The solution to this is the WF-510, a weft feeder designed specifically for carbon fiber and other flat materials. By utilizing an air dancer, this weft accumulator synchronizes with the weaving machine to supply weft fiber by unrolling it rather than pulling it off the end of the package, thus supplying the weft fiber twist free. There are no complicated timing signals to incorporate with the loom, which makes setup easy and simple.

Below are some of the benefits of using the WF-510 for weaving carbon fiber as well as other flat materials.

Rewinding (or respooling) carbon fiber is best avoided when possible. When carbon fiber is rewound, filaments can get damaged, fiber can get twisted, and the width of the fiber can become distorted.

However, in many cases rewinding is unavoidable. You may need to break down packages to put on a weaving creel, which may have close to 1000 positions. Since having full carbon fiber bobbins on a large creel is expensive, there may be a requirement to break down carbon fiber packages into smaller packages. Typically small packages are not available from the fiber manufacturers.

There may also be an instance in which smaller left-over packages need to be consolidated into a larger package. In this case a rewinder can also be used.

We offer a few different solutions for rewinding carbon fiber and other high performance fibers, with minimal damage to the fiber.

Whether you’re a product developer working on a new prototype fiber or a researcher looking to develop new production processes, you’ll need lab-scale equipment to produce your small volumes of carbon fiber.

For laboratory settings, full-size fiber manufacturing equipment is impractical. Fortunately, you can find lab-scale carbon fiber equipment to suit the needs of research and development much better.

When selecting laboratory equipment, keep in mind that you’ll not only want smaller versions of carbon fiber manufacturing machines, but also equipment that is flexible and can adapt to different processes as needed.

All of the systems are modular, thus individual components can be purchased, and as the need arises components can be added on.

We’ve put together a list of some of the best carbon fiber equipment for laboratory applications:

We here at Izumi International are looking forward to attending The Composites and Advanced Materials Expo (CAMX) in Orlando, running from September 11 to 14.

After 40 years in the textile and fiber industry, we here at Izumi International often see common errors in the fiber production process.

For one, correct tension control is commonly overlooked in composite material manufacturing.

Even with the most modern equipment, if the starting tension at the creel is not controlled properly, then the final product may be constructed of fibers with varying tension. As a result, it will not fully utilize the strength of all fibers equally. This can degrade the mechanical properties of the final product.

In other cases, we see applications where tension on fibers is so high that it causes filament damage. This can also degrade the quality of the final product.

At Izumi International, we’re proud to be official distributors of Musashi Engineering automated dispensing equipment. Musashi is the largest fluid dispenser manufacturer in Japan, and their wide line of dispensing products are frequently used in Asia’s electronics manufacturing industry—an industry that demands high-precision applications.

Why do we favor Musashi dispenser products over brands that are better known in the U.S.? There are several important reasons:  

Engineering expertise

Musashi Engineering, Inc. was established in 1978, giving them nearly 40 years of experience in the automation world.

But it’s not just longevity that matters here. Nearly half of Musashi’s 700 employees have an engineering background, meaning product design, development, and testing are all done with an expert eye.

Do you need to transport products to conveyors at multiple heights? Do you need to load products into vertical storage racks and then retrieve them?  If so, you’ll need a high-quality vertical lifting actuator, or lift station.

In our experience, Robotunits extruded aluminum lift stations are among the best solutions for multi-level product conveyance or storage requirements. Here’s what sets them apart:

Looking for a reliable way to dispense pastes, sealants, epoxies and other adhesives for your manufacturing or R&D line? We’d like to get you pointed in the right direction.

In previous posts, we’ve looked at the general types of fluid dispensers available for product automation and how they work. In this post, we’re going to start with the needed adhesive application and list some of the specific dispensing products that are a best fit.

In previous posts, we’ve discussed the strength and efficiency of extruded aluminum framing for mounting robots and other manufacturing equipment. We noted its strength when it came to bearing weight, but there’s another aspect to consider as well.

Several months ago we were at a trade show and saw a Robotunits aluminum frame in use. Representatives from ABB had set up a demonstration of their FlexPicker robot on the exhibition floor, and they relied on a Robotunits aluminum frame for the display. See the video we shot below:

If you’re involved in LED manufacturing, you understand how much relies on your equipment providing exact accuracy each time. You want to avoid wasteful mistakes while creating LED products that are perfectly consistent from production day to production day.

Unfortunately, some of the more finicky steps of LED production pose challenges for consistency. This is especially true in the case of the potting of phosphors for white LEDs.