As Rockingham Systems celebrate 25 years in business, MECPA had the opportunity to speak with Callum Murray, Sales Directorand co-owner, about the benefits of dispensing technology.
Rockingham Systems are a family run engineering company specialising in metering, mixing and dispensing systems for adhesives, resins and sealants, as well as automation of these processes. Callum Murray joined over 12 years ago, and has worked is way up from servicing & Installations to Sales Director and joint owner of the company.
What are the key benefits our audience can expect from utilising your engineered dispensing systems?
Primarily your audience can expect choice to fit their process requirements and budget, as we have such a large portfolio of dispensing equipment to choose from at varying cost points/levels of accuracy. Alongside our own range of FlowDose metering and dispensing systems, we are also the sole UK distributor for Nordson ICS Cold Materials (Automotive & Battery) as well as being distributors for other key industry players, such as Graco, Fisnar, Nordson EFD, and Aplicator AB, enabling us to tailor our offering to suit any technical requirements and budget.
What pointers would you give to anyone looking to specify and buy a dispensing system?
I would say ultimately to know your process and what you want to achieve, and have the Technical Datasheet (TDS) for your chosen material to hand, as every supplier will want this upfront. Then I would say the most important metrics are how you want to apply the material, in what volume and how quickly, coupled with a realistic budget to help any supplier narrow down on the
One other important part I would like to mention is that often customer choices or specifications can ultimately lead to increased cost of the system, so try not to over specify. If +/-5% repeatability is good enough for your process, stand by that, but if you are asking for +/-1% that will increase the cost. Likewise, other decisions made before you start to look for a system can increase the cost, including packaging.
How committed is Rockingham Systems to innovation and new technology development?
We are extremely committed to innovation and new technology. On average over the last few years, we are developing at least two systems a year, sometimes more; this ranges from simple dispense controllers to work with 6-axis collaborative robots like Universal Robots, developing our turnkey automation platforms and implementing progressive cavity pumping technology within our FlowDose range of continuous flow metering systems.
A particular favourite of mine is FlowDose VCM, a metering system designed to dispense from 2-part plastic cartridges but with the repeatability and accuracy of a high-level bulk meter. This system was designed to work with thermal paste materials, which are like liquid sandpaper, but as it is direct from the cartridge, there are no wearing parts to service or replace.
Do you offer customised solutions at request, catering to specific industry requirements?
Yes, the majority of the systems we supply are customised in some way to suit the customers’ requirements, and we try to tackle this by making our system controllers as modular as possible. This means that all regular options are already in the software, such as low-level sensor or pressure sensors. We use IO link to tackle this, as it is a modular, expandable platform.
On top of this, we also offer automation for any of our dispensing systems. So beyond the process equipment itself, we can tailor a complete solution to the customers’ requirements be that a semi-automated solution just for the dispensing process, or a fully automated turnkey system.
