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Doming Machinery Question
Hi guys,
We started Doming about 6 months ago and we have recently be asked to do a job which would enable us to dome about several thousand items a week. Obviously to do this we would be need to be looking in to buying additional machinery as we are currently doming manually with the hand guns. Has anyone recently bought machinery for doming and could recommend somewhere and give us an idea about prices. I anticipate looking in to this at the Birmingham Exhibition next week but any advice would be appreciated in the mean time.
Thanks
Mark
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4 Replies
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These blokes built me a fully automatic doming plotter a few years back. They sell multi-head dispensers etc.
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You need a mixer that uses 2 reservoir drums , this has to have a variable ratio to dispense your 2 part resin correctly , after the resin is dispensed in the correct ratio , you need a static mixer to mix it and then a form of controlling the shot size (how much the dosing head lets out at any one time – ideally you want one that can be set or just used manually , ie if you want to dose a lot , you jus keep the button down) You will also need air and thus a compressor. DO NOT use a cartridge based system , you need a bulk delivery system which means resins are very much cheaper.(you shouldnt pay more than 12 quid a litre and any one item uses 1 gm per sq inch , a litre will cover 1000 sq inches) Whatever system you get must not introduce any moisture or air in the mix (you should be using urethanes , not epoxies) and should ideally have washout facilities to clean static mixers and tubes if there is an interruption in doming.
You have a few choices , but none of these systems will be cheap , bank on at LEAST gbp 8k or more for the machinery.
Mockridge do a machine , http://www.mockridge.com , dopag do a machine(rolls royce stuff – 15k+ , overkill engineering) http://www.dopag.ch and cammda do one http://www.cammda.com , there are other suppliers too , you can get some more info by googling doming machine supplier , dosing machinery , dispensing machinery.
I estimate you will not get away with under gbp 10k for any decent system and that is the cheaper end of things. -
It’s a good point Rodney makes about working conditions. You need to have a clean room for doming in – one that is humidity and temperature controlled. Also, learn and be stringent with the health and safety aspects of mass doming. The solvent for 2 part resin is very nasty stuff. for example. Once set up correctly, these machines can churn out domes by the thousand and it is a very nice little earner.
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Mark,
I had a similar situation a couple of years ago although not for thousands of badges. I used a trade doming company called Cadmus UK in Doncaster 01302 325252. They domed up loads of badges for me, quickly and cheaper than I could do them myself and with a much harder resin. They might be an alternative to purchase of your own equipment.
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