Pin system

Spacing system at membrane presses.

To ensure a complete coating of the workpiece edges in thermoforming presses, the workpieces need to be lifted slightly from the seating. The simple way of doing it is using a spacer (panel, pattern) which is a little smaller than the workpiece. Thereby the foil can enclose the wokpiece. For industrial use, especially if there are various workpiece dimensions, these fixed spacers are unsuitable because they are not easily modifiable. That's why, the manufacturers developed different Pin-Systems in order to avoid spacers.

On manual systems, shiftable pins are moved under the workpiece by the operator. Automatic systems come with vertically adjustable pins, that can be controlled seperately. The layout of the table is captured optically to determine the pins that have to be lifted.

Pin-Systems sorted by manufacturers

Images

Magnet-Pin-System (manuell, Friz 2004)
FRIZ, 2004