Ciject® Injection Equipment Ciject® Five

Infusion Machine

The Ciject® Five has been developed as an extension of the existing Ciject range of meter-mixing injection/infusion machines.Designed specifically for large scale infusion processing, the Ciject Five uses precision gear pumps to achieve output rates.

The Ciject® Five is designed to achieve the following:

• To replace manual resin mixing and handling in the infusion process.
• To connect directly and cleanly to bulk material storage tanks.
• To automatically pump and mix resin/hardener and maintain ratio accuracy over the entire output range.
• To dispense the mixed resin directly into the infusion process.
• To automatically control the rate of injection based on pressure feedback from the mould.
• To enable the operator to have full control of the process with relevant checks, interlocks/alarms and feedback before and during the process.
• To be easily, safely and efficiently flushed/cleaned after the process.
• To enable real-time process data to be recorded.

Significant Technical Benefits:

• The ability to accurately control infusion pressure at the bag inlet point to a resolution of 100mbar whilst continually infusing at varying rate. Infusion can be controlled by either pressure (with a maximum flow rate limit), or, flow rate (with a maximum pressure limit). This fine control allows continuous infusion (not stop/start) without ever causing over-pressurisation (bag blistering).
• Ratio control with continual PID control between A & B components and verification using a predicted/measured flow method. This methodology provides a high confidence level in both the operation of the pumps, flow meters and the final measured ratio.
• The ability to control infusion pressure between 100mbar abs and 1000mbar abs enables the control of the bag consolidation pressure. Typical infusion pressure is 700mbar abs which leaves a positive pressure on the bag of 300mbar or 3 tons/meter sq. The ability to restrain flow in this manner enables user control of final volume fraction. Confirmation of these unique capabilities can be evidenced from existing infusions of up to 8 tons resin quantity.
• The equipment can monitor up to 4 in-bag sensor inputs per mixing unit and any monitored sensor may be used at any point during the infusion for process control. This gives highly accurate control and great flexibility of infusion strategy. Additional IMPS inputs available (see options)
• The equipment contains an onboard flushing system. No resin purging is required to clean the mixing unit. Solvent usage is minimal (up to 1 litre maximum). Time to clean is approx 3-4 minutes.
• A range of ‘pre-infusion’ checks can be incorporated into the software to assist with the preparation for infusion. These can include:
  • Incoming material temperature verification
  • Recirculation checks to validate flow rates of material (pseudo viscosity check)
  • Dispense check to validate material flow rate
  • Vacuum drop tests using IMPS sensors already connected in bag
  • Operator checks
  • IBC material levels