November, 4, 2025 - Guill Tool & Engineering, a global leader in extrusion tooling, exhibited at the K Show in Dusseldorf, Germany from October 8th to the 15th. The company displayed the New Cam-Lock Quick-Change Tooling Design it had recently announced.

The Cam-Lock design is available on various crossheads in its line. Guill engineered, developed, manufactured, assembled and tested this design at its factory in Rhode Island (USA) for inclusion as a standard or optional component on its extrusion tools. Originally developed for the Bullet, a unique Guill extrusion head that eliminates fastening hardware with a fixed center design, multi-port spiral flow and gum space adjustment, the Cam-Lock deflector retaining system represents an important resource in time-saving for the busy extrusion shop that needs to process multiple products. Guill Tools claims the Cam-Lock design significantly reduces the disassembly and re-assembly time needed to get the extrusion process up and running again, in addition to improving maintenance operations and protects vital internal components.

The Cam-Lock supplied on the Bullet head will now be supplied on additional heads, where applicable. It allows quick and easy assembly and disassembly of the crosshead and eliminates the socket head caps screws. By removing and replacing the internals, a different profile or material can be extruded in minutes rather than hours. Since the cam lock resets the internals in the right configuration every time, there is far less chance of error, compared to the assembly and misalignment issues with socket set screws. Guill Tools says its Cam-Lock offers several benefits such as: it takes only ½ turn to remove and install the deflector tip and no fastening hardware is required. According to the company, additional features include fast tool changes with a threaded retaining ring for the die and threaded tip retainer and removal of dies from the front and tips from the back for easier access and handling. In addition, tooling retainers act as a means for gum space adjustment, air/vacuum connections, simplified cleaning and reduced downtime, all contributing to lower operating costs for the extruder and increased production time.

With conventional internals, removal requires excessive time to unscrew the fastening hardware, which can often damage the surfaces and cause misalignment problems when re-assembling the die. The Cam-Lock design Guill has developed ensures the correct alignment of the flange, ports and fluid channels every time, the company claims.

Operation involves the simple removal of a single threaded cap, quickly changing the tip by removing a single threaded tip retainer, removal of the self-extracting deflector for easy cleaning, re-assembly with the air/vaccum connectors in the body or on the tip retainer and resumption of operations.

This Cam-Lock feature can be provided by Guill on many of its existing extrusion heads.

The Guill booth at the K-Show also featured other new developments. These included a rotary die design, Single-Point Concentricity and the New Guill Labs enhancements.

Guill’s technical sales engineer shared his thoughts on the companies they met at the show, the international extruders they’ve partnered with, intriguing applications as well as what caught his attention. Additionally, the company’s European sales manager discussed the role of Guill Tool Europe.

Guill Tool & Engineering’s team at the K-Show booth included Peter Leary, Technical Sales Engineer, Extrusion Division, Jacob Marcure, Design Engineer and Gerjan ter Wal, Sales Manager in Europe.

Commenting on the companies met at the show Leary said, “We met a wide range of companies across the extrusion and plastics industry including wire and cable manufacturers, medical tubing producers, compounding specialists and machinery OEMs. There was also a strong representation from raw material suppliers, large pipe extrusion and automation/controls providers, which gave us valuable insights into emerging technologies and potential partnerships.”

Guill interacted with extruders and processers from all over the world, including Europe, Asia and the Americas. Leary added, “A handful were existing customers stopping by to discuss current projects, but we also met a large number of new potential partners interested in Guill’s precision crosshead and tooling capabilities.” Several applications stood out to Leary, notably multilayer medical tubing and advanced materials for sustainable production. He observed notable interest in tools that handle recycled or bio-based polymers while maintaining tight tolerances and flow balance.

Leary was also impressed with the scale and diversity of the K Show. “One highlight was seeing the increasing integration of digital process monitoring and AI-driven control systems.”

Regarding Guill Tool Europe, ter Wal said that one of the goals expressed by visitors was to optimize their extrusion process and that the European office can help ensure smooth communication and planning for new production solutions.