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NEW RENTOOL® CASTING SYSTEM USED FOR AWARD-WINNING ‘CAR FOR CHINA’
30 April 2005 - Greene Tweed & Co Benelux BV
| Designed to meet the demands of 21st century urban living in China, the Xin Lang was one of five innovative car designs that were selected as winners of the Michelin Design Challenge 2004 "Car for China", and exhibited to great acclaim at the Detroit Car Show earlier this year. |
Xin Lang was designed by the young Slovenian car designer Uro Pavasović and made with RenToolTM tooling resins from Huntsman Advanced Materials, using a unique casting process known as "Cliffhanger".
Designed to produce oversize castings for automotive parts, the mould used for this process is 268cm long and 210cm wide and looks like a large needle bed. It consists of a large number of adjustable wooden stamps or pins, which are put into position via CAD data and can be adjusted either upwards or downwards, i.e. moulds can be either positive or negative.
The size of the mould allows for several full size parts to be cast simultaneously, such as a car roof, left-hand and right-hand doors and a front spoiler. Thus, the complete Xin Ling scale model could be cast in a single shot using this system.
The Xin Lang model was produced using CATIA data supplied by Uro Pavasović, which was then edited for process compatibility. From this data, a 1500 x 500x 450mm solid block was cast using RenTool 5150 resin. This block, weighing approximately 300kg, was then transported to Slovenia, where it was CNC machined to its final dimensions by Kovinoplastika Lo. Technical support for the project was provided by Huntsman Advanced Materials distributor in Slovenia, Adipos d.o.o. based in Ljubljana.
The model was then spray-coated twice after which a primer was applied. Finally the model was painted with metallic automotive paint, producing a high quality gloss finish, ideal for public display.
This unique RenTool Casting Technology system provides considerable time and cost savings for customers because it uses less material and produces a smooth surface, which needs little finishing. The mould production and mould set up are all CAD driven so customers can either enter their own data or RenShape solutions will execute data conversion as a service. And, of course, it saves customers the expense of capital investment in their own casting machinery and equipment.
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About: Greene Tweed & Co Benelux BV
Greene, Tweed specialises in the development, manufacture and supply of rings, seals and profiles for industrial applications in which extremely high specifications are set for the material; brand names include Chemraz, WR and AR. An early product in the portfolio, the G-T Ring, was introduced and approved for use in the landing gear of the F-4 Phantom in 1964. The G-T Ring remains a core product in Aerospace landing gear today. As the business developed, strategy warranted the establishment of corporate headquarters in Kulpsville, Pa., USA. in the 1970s. With this foothold, the company expanded around the globe. In the early 1980s it introduced several versatile elastomers, such as Fluoraz, and designed pioneering product geometries, such as the first "capped seal." Arlon, a tough, high-temperature, semi-crystalline engineering polymer, also joined the product line, followed shortly by one of Greene, Tweed's most innovative products, Chemraz, a chemical-resistant elastomer, effective in the most extreme temperatures. Recognizing the race toward a global economy, Greene, Tweed began geographic expansion by opening offices in Germany, England and France. By the mid 1980s, Greene, Tweed had established a presence in the Pacific with a Japanese office. The Asian market has maintained its pattern of growth with additional offices today in Singapore and Korea. The turn of the century ushered in a new product, Orthtek, a lightweight, thermoplastic composite with high-strength and radiolucent properties, that satisfies the demands of the Medical and Biotechnology industry. Worldwide expansion has continued with new offices in the Netherlands, Italy and Spain. A tradition of creative and innovative ideas has also grown with the development of new products, from new composite technologies and vision systems to fibre optic connectors and extreme electrical connectors. Greene Tweed’s WR and AR product ranges are distributed by Flowserve all over Europe. In Belgium the Greene Tweed & Co products are also distributed by Humitab BVBA in St.Job in ‘t Goor.
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