Until she retired in September 2021, Clare Goldsberry reported on the plastics industry for more than 30 years. In addition to the 10,000+ articles she has written, by her own estimation, she is the author of several books, including The Business of Injection Molding: How to succeed as a custom molder and Purchasing Injection Molds: A buyers guide. Goldsberry is a member of the Plastics Pioneers Association. She reflected on her long career in "Time to Say Good-Bye."

Kortec Connect incorporates a molder’s existing injection molding machine using the Mold-Masters E-Multi secondary injection unit in combination with a Kortec co-injection hot runner.

Processors may be familiar with Kortec Complete co-injection technology from Milacron (Cincinnati, OH), which comprises a co-injection molding machine, Kortec hot runner and on-demand engineering support. Now Milacron is introducing Kortec Connect in response to customer requests for a way to upgrade their current injection molding machines with co-injection capabilities.

According to Morris, Kortec Connect can be used on any qualified brand of injection molding machine, provided it has the required performance. “The Kortec Connect offering has been used successfully in molding coffee cups, caps, closures, personal care items, thin-wall and medical parts, and it can also be added to a PET monolayer system, introducing the ability to mold barrier preforms at a fraction of the cost while avoiding an investment in a dedicated PET co-injection machine,” he stated.

Steve Morris, President of Milacron Systems, explained: “We have perfected the plastics industry’s first and only co-injection retrofit offering. We’ve combined the 30-plus years of experience from our Kortec co-injection melt delivery technology and utilized the highly successful Mold-Masters E-Multi secondary injection unit to offer customers a cost-effective entry into the high growth co-injection molding market.”

Milacron’s co-injection engineers work hand-in-hand with customers to customize the Kortec Connect solution for their specific applications.

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Kortec Connect allows customers to invest in co-injection at a lower capital cost and provides the added flexibility of being able to move co-injection technology throughout their facility, eliminating the need for a dedicated co-injection work cell, the company said. Kortec Connect offers “plug-and-play” conversion, with all of the software algorithms and setup contained in the Kortec Connect controller.