Strictly-Extrusion

The latest edition of the “EDI Advances” newsletter (Number 19) from Extrusion Dies Industries, LLC (EDI) is released. Chief topics include:

● Hot melt adhesive coating. A full-length technical article reports on two innovations, including a coating die for clear, streak-free pressure sensitive adhesives and a turnkey hot melt coating station. The article starts on the back page (8) and continues inside.

● Polystyrene foam board insulation.  A special die for this application helps manufacturers offset productivity losses incurred as they switch to non-ozone depleting blowing agents. (The deadline for making the switch was three weeks ago—January 1!)

● Super-hard, super-sharp die lip edges. Such edges are critical for achieving the highest levels of quality and precision in film, sheet, and coating.

● Rheology—a lot more than melt index. A look at EDI’s rheological analysis capabilities, including information on why the science of polymer flow is important for extrusion processors.The latest edition of the “EDI Advances” newsletter (Number 19) from Extrusion Dies Industries, LLC (EDI) is released. Chief topics include:

● Hot melt adhesive coating. A full-length technical article reports on two innovations, including a coating die for clear, streak-free pressure sensitive adhesives and a turnkey hot melt coating station. The article starts on the back page (8) and continues inside.

● Polystyrene foam board insulation.  A special die for this application helps manufacturers offset productivity losses incurred as they switch to non-ozone depleting blowing agents. (The deadline for making the switch was three weeks ago—January 1!)

● Super-hard, super-sharp die lip edges. Such edges are critical for achieving the highest levels of quality and precision in film, sheet, and coating.

● Rheology—a lot more than melt index. A look at EDI’s rheological analysis capabilities, including information on why the science of polymer flow is important for extrusion processors.

● EDI news—lots of it. In the six months since the last issue of “EDI Advances,” EDI has added personnel (including a new sales director for the Americas), appointed new agents in Korea and Turkey, brought a modular slot die coating system to China, and begun reworking blown film dies.

Please -cklick here- to download your copy.

● EDI news—lots of it. In the six months since the last issue of “EDI Advances,” EDI has added personnel (including a new sales director for the Americas), appointed new agents in Korea and Turkey, brought a modular slot die coating system to China, and begun reworking blown film dies.

Please -cklick here- to download your copy.

Reportlinker has announced that a new market research report “US extruded plastics industry” is available. This industry study covers historical demand data (1998, 2003 and 2008) plus forecasts for 2013 and 2018 by resin type and market. The study also considers market environment factors, evaluates company market share and profiles industry competitors. Click here for more information.

KraussMaffei Berstorff (www.kraussmaffei.com) is now offering complete systems for continuous production of PU-insulated pipes. The extruded plastic pipe is given an insulating polyurethane layer, followed immediately by the addition of a protective polyethylene sheath. KraussMaffei Berstorff can call on many decades of technology competence and experience in pipe extrusion and in PU processing. This unique know-how enables the company to develop complete production solutions which successfully integrate different plastics processes.

The pipe – made of PE-HD, PE-X, PE-RT or PB according to the application – is produced on a conventional pipe extrusion line. A barrier layer can be

Photo: KraussMaffei

applied. The pipe coming off the line is wound onto large steel drums ready for transfer to the second production system unit for application of the insulation layer. Alternatively, the insulation layer can be added to bought-in pipe. In this second unit, the pipe is unwound from the steel drums, heated if necessary, and fed under tension into a shaping conveyor. A PU mixing head dispenses the polyurethane mix at the inlet throat. The aluminium shaping jaws define the outer diameter of the insulation layer by limiting the foam volume. A film prevents the polyurethane from adhering to the aluminium shaping jaws. Once the PU insulation layer has cured, the pipe leaves the shaping conveyor and a PE outer sheath is applied, using a single-screw extruder with a sheathing die. This outer sheath is cooled, the whole composite pipe is hauled off and wound on a drum. The system allows the integration of anti-diffusion barrier layers and/or wires to monitor leakage.

Insulating properties

The standard version of this production system can be used to produce pipe with an outer diameter between 20 and 110 mm. For pipe diameters from 20 to 63 mm, a complete pipe element usually contains two pipes (outflow and return pipes). The exterior diameter of the pipe element will then be between 75 and 180 mm, depending on the diameter of the pipes and the thickness of the insulating layer.

The mixing performance of the PU mixing head produces an insulation layer with a very low thermal conductivity – between 0.02 and 0.03 W/m*K, depending on the type of foam. This highly efficient insulation makes these pipes the ideal solution whenever a significant temperature differential must be maintained between the medium flowing through the pipes and the ambient temperature. In some cases, the medium being transported is hotter – such as supply lines for combined heat and power or geothermal plants, or hot water pipelines in general. Insulated pipes are also sometimes required for potable water transport if there is a risk of the pipes freezing. In other cases, the medium must be kept cold or cool, for example, in air conditioning or refrigeration systems, or in pipes for transporting liquefied gas. With the current focus on energy savings, strong growth in demand can be expected in all these application areas.

New production system concept from a single-vendor partner

KraussMaffei Berstorff can now quote on complete, precision-planned systems for the production of media pipes and for applying the insulating layer and protective sheathing. By contrast with some other systems on the market, KraussMaffei Berstorff technology is characterized by sharply reduced wear on all system components, high system reliability and a high-quality end-product.

No limits on pipe length

Producing insulated pipe in a continuous process has several advantages compared with discontinuous production. One major advantage is the relatively high level of automation that results in lower labour costs. Furthermore, there are virtually no limits on the length of the pipe being produced. Contributing to this wide freedom is the design of the PU mixing head, which eliminates stoppages for cleaning and changing the mixing head. Longer pipe sections reduce the number of production system restarts and also the number of connections needing to be made when the pipe is laid. This in turn eliminates the risk of thermal bridges and leaks, and makes pipe laying easier and quicker.

A new film extrusion grade of cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) from TOPAS Advanced Polymers, Inc. (www.topas.com) extends the commercial glass transition temperature range down to 33° C. TOPAS 9903D-10 is the company’s latest film extrusion resin which delivers a unique combination of low-temperature shrinkage, sealing, and high stiffness for a range of shrink films and sealant films for the consumer packaging industry.

The new material is used to enhance polyolefin formulations for a range of monolayer and multilayer packaging film applications including shrink film, shrink sleeves and shrink labels for bottles and other consumer packaging, and in improved sealant films for stand-up pouches. In polyolefin blends containing 5% to 50% of the new COC, low-temperature shrinkage and stiffness were improved significantly, resulting in better downstream processing. In multilayer sealant films, the new material provides excellent low-temperature sealing and high stiffness for stand-up pouches.

TOPAS 9903D-10 boosts the performance of ultra linear-low-density PE which is typically used in applications that require low-temperature shrinkage. Higher stiffness is a key benefit, resulting in improved web handling and printing operations. Shrinkage is also enhanced, but unlike most stiff polymers, shrink force is actually reduced by the COC resin so packages are less likely to distort or crush when wrapped.

TOPAS 9903D-10 COC resin has a melt flow index of 0.9 which is similar to that of LLDPE grades that are used for shrink films. The material’s tensile modulus of 100,000 psi increases when the film is oriented. TOPAS COCs are amorphous polymers that offer high transparency, outstanding moisture barrier, high rigidity and strength, excellent biocompatibility, and good electrical insulation properties. This unique combination of properties has led to TOPAS COC applications in such areas as medical devices, food and pharmaceutical packaging, optics, and electronics.

Sabic Innovative Plastics (www.sabic-ip.com) has added two new extrusion lines for the production of PC sheets at its film and sheet facility in Gujarat (India).The booming building and construction industry in India generates a strong demand for PC sheets. The LEXAN products are mainly used for industrial roofing and metro rail seating.

Celanese Corporation, the parent company of chemical company Ticona, announced the acquisition of the long-fiber reinforced thermoplastics (LFT) business of FACT GmbH (Future Advanced Composites Technology), one of the leading manufacturers of LFTs for extrusion, injection moulding and blown-film applications…

More information: click here

Andreas Kessler (34) takes over as General Sales Manager for Munich Extrusion with immediate effect. He now has overall responsibility for order and sales activities for this division’s German and international subsidiaries. In his new function as General Sales Manager for Extrusion Munich, he will be working closely with Ralf J. Dahl who holds the same post for the Hanover arm of KraussMaffei Berstorff.

Michael Hofhus (53) has taken over as Product Group Manager in Munich for Pipe Extrusion. He is responsible for sales and marketing activities for the company’s whole range of pipe extrusion machinery. His management responsibilities also cover die engineering, project planning, process engineering and the Pipe Extrusion TechCenter.

Peter Oswald (54) now heads up the Profile Extrusion product group, with responsibility for sales and marketing activities for the company’s whole range of pipe extrusion machinery, including project planning, process engineering and the product group’s TechCenter.

Battenfeld Extrusionstechnik has introduced a new internal air cooling system, the so-called EAC (Efficient Air Cooling), for its range of pipe dies which helps to improve quality and output. On the quality side, the sagging effect can be reduced significantly. According to the company the system is suitable for the production of mono-layer and also multi-layer pipes in the common range of 63 to 2,000 mm and can even be retro-fit into existing Battenfeld VSI pipe dies.
EAC simply uses air to cool the pipe effectively from inside and outside. Inside the cooling is done through air exchange and exhausting of the warm air. In addition, the die mandrel is cooled with a special mechanism.
For more information: http://www.bex.battenfeld.com/en/news/press-releases

Dow Europe GmbH (“Dow”) has launched an enhanced linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) resin for high-throughput lamination and protective film applications. XZ 89446.00 Polyethylene Resin is a new higher-alpha polyolefin copolymer LLDPE specifically designed for high conversion rate processability and improved seal through contamination performance for both blown and cast flexible packaging film structures.

The new resin, which can be used alone or in blends with low density polyethylene (LDPE), has a 2 g/10-minutes Melt Flow index (MFI: 190°C/2.16 kg) and a density of 0.916 g/cm³. According to the company its high-throughput processability can offer clear advantages when compared to similar melt flow index resins, including equivalent metallocene linear low density polyethylene (mLLDPE) resins. The polymer design of XZ 89446.00 will potentially reduce overall processing costs in three ways: by helping to lower energy consumption by enabling processing at lower temperatures; by leveraging higher throughput efficiency to help improve the unit cost of producing films; and by helping reducing wear and tear costs for conversion equipment as a result of processing with lower extruder pressures.

For blown film lamination applications, such as for dry or frozen food packaging, XZ 89446.00 can provide improved seal through contamination performance with low seal and low hot-tack initiation temperatures. When tested against a comparable polyethylene resin used for such applications, XZ 89446.00 sealed at lower initiation temperatures by approximately 10°C.

For use in protective film applications, such as films used on glass, plastic sheet, appliances or consumer electronics products, the new resin’s higher melt flow offers smoother, flatter film surfaces with good optics, continuous high quality processing (low gels) and good chemical resistance.

For more information: www.dowplastics.com

The two-day technical conference on extrusion “Plastic Extrusion Asia 2010″ will be held at the Impiana KLCC Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on March 29-30, 2010. Experts from all over the world will be speaking at this conference.

The emphasis of this conference will be on innovative methods and machinery that will allow extrusion companies to reduce material usage and scrap, increase uptime, output, and product quality. Since the 2008 conference the world economy has seen a severe downturn. This puts extrusion companies under increased pressure to reduce cost and increase quality.

Several new developments in extrusion will be presented at this conference. Papers will be presented on advances in twin screw compounding, high speed single screw extrusion, blown film extrusion, compounding of nano composites, profile extrusion, machinery to produce filled polymers, process monitoring and troubleshooting, etc.

A panel discussion on “Cost Saving Opportunities in the Extrusion Process” will be held in the conference, which is beneficial to plastic industries in Asia.The conference will be followed by four technical training seminars on extrusion. For more information: www.plasticextrusionasia.com