A company of Cannon Group, Cannon Afros has introduced B-Cast, an innovative new dosing unit addressing the needs of PU casting elastomers. B-Cast integrates Cannon’s proprietary technologies including - but not limited to - thin-film degassing, and eco-cleaner for solvent recycle, and can easily be configured to customers’ specific manufacturing requirements for cold and hot cast elastomers ranging from 30 to 130°C.

“As socio-economic development and changes in lifestyle are driving the demand for PU elastomers in traditional market segments, such as footwear, sports, automotive and the paper industry, we see significant opportunities for further growth especially with demanding technical applications in other sectors, including oil & gas, marine, industrial and wind power,” said Francesco Abbà, Sales & Marketing Director for Cannon Afros. “B-Cast enables clean, efficient and precisely controlled casting of a wide range of compact elastomer systems, leveraging our extensive expertise in polyurethane processing equipment and custom-tailored solutions.”

Like all Cannon dosing equipment for elastomers, B-Cast has been designed to degas and cast materials at the same time, eliminating the need for a separate degassing unit. The proprietary thin-film degassing technology eliminates potential air entrapments during dosing and mixing and is of strategic advantage in the continuous production of high-quality finished parts. It results in a bubble-free polymer matrix and leads to smooth surfaces with increased abrasion resistance.

Dedicated closed-loop controlled flow transducers provide reliable and repeatable dosing precision. In addition, a special eco-cleaner device for the mixing head and an easy cleaning process make Cannon’s B-Cast a most environmentally friendly dosing unit for processors seeking to improve their chemical waste management. B-Cast offers a maximum of configuration options. Several mixers with different design are available to fit a wide range of elastomer systems. The unit can be equipped with tanks of different sizes in stainless or carbon steel to serve multiple material components. It supports up to four colors/catalysts and various output rates for any application.

Moreover, the advanced temperature control of B-Cast provides fast and efficient heating at energy savings of up to 40%. Automatic calibration of the mixing ratio saves further time and helps in minimizing material waste, keeping constant quality production and error-free operation of the dosing unit. A user-friendly 3-click Human Machine Interface (HMI) touch panel puts all process parameters to the fingertips of the operator with a maximum of three keystrokes. Smart self-calibration of parameters also facilitates the switch of formulations. All maintenance functions are readily “on the run” available and accessible to maximize uptime of the dosing unit.