No-stick, adjustable air cages debut at K 2004.

Two machine builders introduced new technology for no-stick adjustable air cages for blown film at the K 2004 Show in Dusseldorf last month. Reifenhauser GmbH in Germany (U.S. office in Ipswich, Mass.) launched a contactless bubble-calibration cage (shown below) with curved calibration "shoes" coated with a microporous ceramic. (Reifenhauser uses the same material to coat new contactless turning bars.) Only a small amount of compressed air is released through the microporous surface. Two of these devices have been sold for making protective film for car windows, where even slight surface marks are highly visible. The coating is so expensive that Reifenhauser also offers a "less-contact" calibration cage as an alternative. It uses the "contactless" shoes only on the lower levels of the cage. Tel: [phone] * PTDirect: 911BP

Windmoeller & Hoelscher in Germany (U.S. office in Lincoln, R.I.) has built its first non-contact "Nostic" air cage for processing tacky film (above). It uses "output-controlled cooling-air blowers" without any mechanical control elements. W&H says it controls width tolerances as tightly as a contact sizing cage. Five systems are in use. Customers report that the air-based sizing cage increases output. Tel: [phone] * PTDirect: 689FK