| | | With the success of FIT® in standard resin application, the Magnum Venus Products Advanced Design Group turned their focus to applying this technology to gelcoat. From the beginning, dramatic results were achieved with an increase in transfer efficiencies by an average of 35% and material savings of 10 - 15%. Customers currently using a FIT® Gelcoat System have seen a notable reduction of styrene emissions. | | |
| | | With an eye toward the future of FRP, Magnum Venus Products has brought together some of the industry's most experienced engineers, designers, and machinists with well over 100 years of combined experience in the composite equipment field to form the Advanced Design Group. With over twenty patents between them, this group has created many award winning designs to meet the ever-changing emissions and maintenance needs of the industry, including the patented Fluid Impingement Technology (FIT®). Current and future developments by the Magnum Venus Products Advanced Design Group have, and will continue to, put MVP years ahead of the competition and in many marine cases the FRP industry Advanced FRP Advanced FRP applications are one of the fastest growing areas of the thermoset plastics industry throughout the world. From filament winding, to flat panel manufacturing, to the layout of a boat hull, Magnum Venus Products has the right system for the job. The flagship of the MVP Advanced FRP series is the Versa-Wind line of comprehensive winding capabilities. Foremost among its benefits is its ability to grow with the customer's operation, allowing the operator to start small and add on as output needs match the growing business. The MVP Reciprocator is designed for automatic, high-volume production of flat panels for boats or sheets, using a chopper and/or gelcoat gun for boats. The gun traverses over a moving mold or marine table, distributing catalyzed resin and chopped fiberglass evenly on the surface of a carrier film. The MVP Four-Roll model Impregnator, available in a variety of configurations, continues to find applications in the manufacture of boats supplier of all sizes as well as numerous other non-marine products. As with the other MVP systems, low pressure FIT® is the driving force behind the Advanced FRP line. | | |
| | | Magnum Venus Products' pioneering work in reinforced plastics led to the development of superior equipment and tools, special systems, and new technologies for processing various thermoset materials. Regulations by the EPA, OSHA and other agencies regarding emission levels have been, and will continue to be, the most important issue facing the industry for decades to come. MVP technology helps fabricators comply with regulations, efficiently and profitably. Emission reduction In recent years, the awareness among government organizations of the problems caused by styrene emissions both inside and outside the workshop has increased. The industry struggles through research to develop equipment that meets current standards and anticipates future regulations. Recent studies by the Clean Manufacturing Technology and Safe Materials Institute (CMTI) at Purdue University and the U.S. based Composites Fabricators Association (CFA) prove that FIT® technology (consisting of a low pressure pumping system, modular gun, combined with a unique nozzle and mix chamber) can significantly reduce styrene emissions. Research has shown that styrene emissions can be increased by atomization created by high pressures at the gun and spray techniques previously thought acceptable. The use of flowcoat technology was found to significantly reduce styrene emissions for wet-out. When correctly used, flow coat technology, which does not atomize the resin, reduces VOC's during wetout because of the simple geometry of the resin flow. | | surface area of the resin increases, which increases emission. In fact, if the "spray" droplets get too small, they don't even reach their target; they drift off as fumes into the atmosphere. The FRP industry embraced the new FloCoat technology as a viable and cost effective means for reducing styrene emissions, however the individual linear streams proved to be challenging for filled resin systems. The difficulty of chopping glass into the resin streams required the operator to increase pump pressures to such a high level that the streams broke into droplets, producing atomization and misting. (See Figure 2) This high velocity creates a spray fan similar to airless spray techniques, therefore reducing the benefits of flow coating. Figure 2 While flow coating worked well with unfilled resin, it did not work with filled systems as the fillers for boats in the resin would plug the holes associated with a FloCoat nozzle. At this time, governmental agencies were demanding a reduction in the emission levels of filled marine resins applications. To reduce emissions in these applications meant an entirely new and radical technology would have to be developed. That technology was FIT®. FIT® reduced emissions below that of the FloCoat technology with the added benefit of waste reduction and increased transfer efficiencies. Typical savings can be as high as 10%. Many government agencies see FIT® as a definite benefit to fabricators, as it allows them to meet the new government regulations without making significant changes to the way they build their product. The fabricators are also excited about this technology as FIT® puts them in compliance with regulations, while reducing their material usage and giving them a superior product. | | |
| | | A flow coat style nozzle provides continuous streams of catalyzed resin continuously flowing onto the open mold. (See Figure 1) These resin streams reach the mold intact without atomizing. A spray fan, unlike flowcoat, breaks into droplets and atomizes before reaching the mold surface. Most of the research on VOC's for spray is based on droplet size, and as the diameters of the resin droplets decrease, the overall | | |