NEW TOOLEX ALPHA AD12 PRESS

[AD1207]

Dear all,
We at Pheenix Alpha are putting the final touch to the first batch of completely NEW AD12 presses in 40 years.

Here's a short clip of the first press during testing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkgmb32cQMo

please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

/Niklas
Pheenix Alpha AB

[mossboss]

Fantastic well done

[AD1207]

Fantastic well done

Thankyou! Much appreciated!

[Aussie0zborn]

Excellent.

[AD1207]

Excellent.

Thankyou!

Here's one more clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn1NXzj66sA&feature=youtu.be

/Niklas

[untitledthe]

Congratulations.

[Aussie0zborn]

That's a much better video. Very sleek.

Great colour... much better than green but can I suggest the MD100 colour scheme would be a great finish to this machine?

[Sillitoe]

Awesome!!!

[AD1207]

Thankyou everyone for all the positive response.

That's a much better video. Very sleek.

Great colour... much better than green but can I suggest the MD100 colour scheme would be a great finish to this machine?

The white is the same tone as the MD100 (RAL7035). I agree that the scheme would be a nice touch. Lets see what the future brings...

[Masterlabs]

Hi Niklas,

Beautiful quiet , solid , fast machine.Well done.20 sec cycle is excellent.

Please could you send me prices, and approximate shipping dates.

Regards,

Aidan Foley.

[montalbano]

Fantastic.
Just a couple things I've noticed - on these machines - as an experienced owner and user of 5 old Alphas:
1. patty loader goes half way in, then it stops, then it goes full way in. There must be a (good) reason for this. Maybe - just my guessing - the reason might be a more precise placing of the puck: from my experience, even with precise settings, the placing of the puck might differ a little if you change compound, or if you turn from black to colored compound. It might be due to the specific weight of the compound, to thermic reasons, who knows. But empirically speaking, on the old standard Alphas it always changes a little. And this trick, by diminishing the acceleration of the patty loader by about 1/2, might help a lot.
2. I didn't find (but I might have not have noticed it) the big pin which prevents the unloading arm and the ring to enlarge during the pressing, making the record bend a little during the unloading process. In the video, however, the record is unloaded straight.
Maybe someone at Pheenix might explain these things a little bit better.
Cheers

[AD1207]

Hello Montalbano!
Here are the answers to your questions and description on other new features:

1:
Our idea is that in order to load the patty precise (like you anticipated) and to save life time of cylinders, we decided to reduce speed (fast moving pneumatic cylinders tend to wear out much quicker than cylinders moving at more decent speed and with end dampening). However reduced speed could affect cycle time (depending on settings). In order to run the cylinders at lower speed and not affecting cycle time in a negative way, we decided to have a preemptive loading seequence. Meaning that once the cooling cycle is completed, the patty form will open and the patty will be moved to the "intermediate" position. Once the disc arm is out the patty is moved into place at the lower speed, still managing to reach the centre of the mould at the same time as the lable arms. The intermediate posistion sensor is also used to trigger the disc arm inwards movement when the patty load cylinder passes the sensor on the way back. This also gives the possibility to have end position dampers on the cylinders but not affecting cycle time.
We will also introduce other features as a result of having the intermediate position. However I will not disclose these yet...

2.
The pin is there. Same setup as the original (maybe it's not shown on the youtube-clip).

Futhermore wi have equipped the press with pressure sensor on the ram. The pressure reading is used to trigger cooling and also it's used to control the integrated hyraulic pump unit (optional). regarding the cooling, the user can program a pressure treshold when the cooling should start. This will bring more stability to the process compared to using timers.

We have also equipped the press with incremental posistion sensor on the press table. The user can program swichpoint for changeing speed (both for opening and closing), centre pin retraction and pre-trigger for arm out movement.

In order to enable fast stamper change, we have equipped the press with the Toolex pneumatic mould locks. These were not standard on all original AD12's. But on our version they are.
So the only "screwing/unscrewing" during stamper change is the center stamper retainers. Other than this it's just the matter of turning the centering plunge lever (same as original) and swing out/in the moulds.


Best regards,
Niklas
Pheenix Alpha AB

[AD1207]

If there's more questions "out there", please feel free to post them here or PM me. Of course we would also apreciate comments/ideas/requests of new features that could/should be added, but also your opinion on "weak points" on the original that could/should be addressed on the new presses.

Regards,
Niklas
Pheenix Alpha AB

[andybee]

Hello! Some words here from my side:
Nice job, well done. The body looks old, freshly white painted, there are the original holes
for the old switches etc. inside, also some other hints, that this is an old press body. anyway.
Most of the other parts look new, or new done. Pneumatic retrofit, arms etc.
This jobs are still done by mostly every pressing plant using toolex presses.
Every pressing plant has replaced parts from time to time...
unloading arms, label arms, broken parts, cylinders, sealings, controllers whatever...
Every pressing plant has done this mostly alone with their own concept, because there
was no official toolex spare part dealer arround for years.
I asked Pheenix Alpha for spare parts one year ago, because they have the original drawings for the parts.
I never get some parts from them. I asked again, when I see the video, still not willing selling parts.
So I have to re-manufacture all my needed parts the same way, as the other plants do.
For me this is more or less "souri-style-business" and I don´t like that...
For sure, they can build nice replicas, but this is no big deal at all.... others have still done....
Support for old toolex: nope. that is a crying shame
nuff said.

[AD1207]

Hello! Some words here from my side....

Andy,
If you just would have contacted me (you have both my phone number and email address) before posting your speculations regarding our new AD12 press, I would have put your worries to rest
All our presses (including the press shown on the youtube-clips I have posted) are made ONLY from NEW parts. We have NOT re-used any material from any old press.
You base your speculations on "hints" like "holes for old sensors" that you have seen on the press in the above mentioned clips.
Now, the "hints" are there so your observations are correct. However your conclusion is wrong. When we ordered material for the presses we had to focus on the new features. And since all drawings are hand-drawn and lead times for parts are long, we left some of the old features on the drawings due to lack of time.
Parallell to starting up production, we are "converting" all drawings to 3D. This is a HUGE job. At the present we are almost finished with this job.
I hope this is clear enough to kill all speculations of similar kind.

Regarding spareparts/retrofit-kits etc, you are also mistaking yourself, Andy. We are of course willing to sell. It's just that we right now have to focus on getting the first batch of presses ready. We simply can't spend any time on "side-projects" right now. The good news for old Toolex AD12 users is that we are building up spare part stock now that we are making new presses. And we will offer arm-kits etc. in the future.

If there's more questions out there, I will be happy to answer them. Also anyone who is interested are welcome to visit us. Just contact me and I will arrange it.

Regards,
Niklas
Pheenix Alpha

[JairoBecerra]

Hello Niklas

Still having this equipment for pressing from toolex Alpha ?

I´m intrested in to get it.

Regards:

JairoBecerra

[AD1207]

@Jairo Becerra:
Check your PMs

[AD1207]

Hi all!
I just realized that one year now have past since I first posted this http://www.lathetrolls.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=5601&p=37371#p37371 here in the forum. Time has really moved fast! The response we got surely contributed to convincing us that our plans to make new Toolex AD12-presses was the right thing to do.
We have had a lot of feedback and info regarding details that we should take under concideration when making new presses. This has been extremely valuable for us during the process.
So a very special thankyou to everyone who took their time to email or call us, sharing your opinions and ideas.

Regards,
Niklas
Pheenix Alpha AB

[andybee]

Niklas!
Please don´t misunderstand me, I wrote: "it looks like", so I just suppose.
I asked pheenix alpha more then one year ago for 7" spare parts, nothing happend,
at the moment, there are also no spareparts available, not for 7" and also not for 12".
I just noticed, that you did not support the vinyl industry the last 20-30 years.
Now, the demand is higher, your focus is to sell new machines.
We at MY45 are using old machines at the moment, so our focus is to repair the old ones, then buy new
ones.
We (and also other plants before) have built so many spare parts, that we easy can build a new press,
just a few parts missing, I think the same for all other plants using toolex for a longer period.
Maybe it is a good idea, also support toolex users with spare parts, but this is maybe too late now,
maybe I am the latest person, who is asking
Again, I don´t want to blame you, I just want to clear out the situation for spare parts.
You and Pheenix have done a very very good job! All the best for the future!

[AD1207]

Hello everyone!
Here's a short clip with some content relating to this subject... (starts around 0:50)

https://www.ndr.de/fernsehen/sendungen/nordmagazin/Schallplatten-aus-Roebel,nordmagazin39640.html

Regards,
Niklas