ReDeTec
Assembly Line
High-Risk, High-Reward: Investing in Game-Changing Plastics Extrusion Technology
ReDeTec, a Toronto-based small business, has developed MixFlow, a filament extrusion system that promises a new way to melt plastics. Whereas traditional systems churn a screw through molten plastic, ReDeTec’s novel filament extrusion design separates the drive section and melt section with a thermal isolator, allowing independent control of temperature and pressure, explained Meij, CEO of BM3 Ventures Ltd., and an early-stage investor in the plastics extrusion system.
ReDeTec’s extrusion technology is game changing because it uses 50% less energy than competing systems and offers higher throughput and more automation, Meij said during a call to invite Machine Design to visit ReDeTec’s R&D facility in Toronto. “The solution has disruptive potential,” he touted.
Plastics extrusion is a high-efficiency, low-volume manufacturing process where raw plastic material is melted and shaped into a continuous profile by forcing it through an extrusion die. The process is widely used to produce continuous components or products, such as pipes, tubing, fencing, deck railings, window frames, plastic films, sheets, thermoplastic coatings and wire insulation. Injection molding, by contrast, forms a part by injecting molten material into a mold. The process can handle a broader range of materials required to produce discrete products, such as automotive parts or bottle caps, and is associated with greater precision, complexity and tolerances than plastic extrusion processes.
ReDeTec, which bills itself online as an advanced plastics manufacturing company, started out as a 3D printing business about 11 years ago. The company has six employees, including four engineers and sales and marketing support. “We have an electrical engineer, a mechatronics engineer and a software control systems engineer,” said Oosterman, an engineering physicist who studied at Canada’s University of British Columbia. “What unites all of us in this business and in this drive is that we all really like seeing hands-on, tangible creation. People say, ‘hardware is hard,’ but it’s also exceptionally rewarding.”