Talking Tubing

Instalok case study

A few weeks ago, our Product Manager and Communications Coordinator ventured to Orangeville, Ontario to visit a Plastiflex plant for a case study on our Instalok coupling.  When the Instalok originally hit the market, this Plastiflex plant was one of the first companies to incorporate the Instalok in their plant.  We did a case study four years ago that found the Instalok worked successfully while saving Plastiflex both time and money.

Since then, Plastiflex has installed new material transfer lines and done some rearranging.  We wanted to see if the Instaloks held up after four years, could be successfully reused, and were still performing well.

Even we were surprised at the findings: the Plastiflex maintenance manager told us that reinstallation of the Instaloks took about one fourth the time that it would have taken if using compression or 3 bolt couplings.  All they had to do was loosen the two bolts, give "a little tug and flex", and reinstall.  On the other hand, the compression couplings took forever because the gaskets needed scraped from the tube and to install, the usual bolt-tightening dance had to be performed. They're still using a lot of the original Instaloks as well.

We also discovered many other great things about the Instalok, so if you're really interested, check out our new case study or call us for a free sample of the Instalok.  As always, feel free to leave a comment about your own experience!

What is the Instalok?

The Instalok coupling is billed as the first major innovation in tube coupling technology in over 50 years and is one of our feature products at pricefitters.com. We are often asked why the Instalok is a feature product and why is it rapidly becoming the coupling of choice for plastic processors. We believe its simplicity of design, ease of installation, and durability warrant its status as a feature product. In our estimation, it shouldn't require engineering skills to connect two pieces of tube and it certainly shouldn't be as time consuming as it is to install a standard compression coupling. However, our customers that use the Instalok aren't comfortable with so simple an answer and claim there are many more advantages:

1.Better overall system performance. Since the Instalok uses an O-ring seal instead of a gasket, there's a better seal in both the vacuum and pressure environments. The O-ring also reduces the water seepage found at times in outside applications.

2. Less dust and fines generation: the Instalok is designed to automatically align tube ends, so there's less of an opportunity for pellet shear.

3. Reduced contamination: Instaloks' metal on metal clamp provides a positive engagement that greatly reduces tube movement. As a result, there's a reduced opportunity for pockets to develop where pellets can be trapped during line purges. Additionally, with no gasket, the threat of abraded gasket material in the line - and thus in the end product - is eliminated.

The list goes on, but we love hearing feedback about our products. If you have an Instalok experience or a question/comment about the Instalok, just let us know. If you haven't had the chance to try out an Instalok on your lines, give us a call and we'll send you out a free sample. See for yourself why it's our feature product.