Process and dispensing system for preparing liquid concentrates for plastics

Abstract

The invention provides a process for preparing a liquid concentrate for use in the manufacture of plastic parts (including without limitation, as part of the sampling, evaluation and approval process before a plastic part goes into production) comprising: (a) preparing one or more liquid intermediates, wherein the liquid intermediates comprise a liquid vehicle and at least one additive (which may include a pigment, dye or other additive); (b) standardizing the liquid intermediates; (c) transferring the standardized liquid intermediates to a remote location; and (d) dispensing the liquid intermediates to produce a liquid concentrate, wherein the quantity of each liquid intermediate dispensed is controlled according to a predetermined formula for the liquid concentrate. The present invention also provides a process for preparing a liquid concentrate for use in the manufacture of plastic parts comprising: (a) providing one or more liquid intermediates, wherein the liquid intermediates comprise a liquid vehicle and at least one additive (which may include a pigment, dye or other additive), wherein the liquid intermediates are standardized, and wherein the liquid intermediates have been prepared remotely; and (b) dispensing the liquid intermediates to produce a liquid concentrate, wherein the quantity of each liquid intermediate dispensed is controlled according to a predetermined formula for the liquid concentrate. The present invention also provides a process for preparing a liquid concentrate as described above using a dispensing system which includes a dispensing machine and mixing equipment which may be controlled by a computer or operated manually at the location where the dispensing is done to produce the liquid concentrate; and which may include the manual “hand add” of one or more components of the predetermined formula before the mixing step.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.