Plastics News - Show Daily - October 20, 2022 - 20

20 * Plastics News, October 20, 2022
SHOW DAILY
Wood and paper fiber thermoforming focus by Kiefel
Fiber products
thermoformed
by Modiform
in Leusden,
Netherlands.
Plastics News photo
by David Vink
ated in
Freilassing
for fiber and
plastics thermoforming
machines. "
Kiefel developed
the Natureformer
specifically for processing
wood fiber
into thermoformed
packaging. In
March 2022, Kiefel
talked about one
U.S. customer having
ordered 100 Natureformers
and said
it was " commissioning
at least one new machine
at a customer facility every
By David Vink
Plastics News Correspondent
Planning for the Natureformer
KFT90 machine presented at
K 2022 by Freilassing, Germany-based
thermoforming machinery
producer Kiefel GmbH (Hall 3,
Booth E90) started in 2018, Global
Packaging Director Andreas
Staudinger has revealed.
He explained, " We looked into
fiber then, at the time we made a
strategic decision to step out of
the automotive industry. For that
reason, plenty of space was creday. "
Kiefel has shown products
thermoformed by Leusden, Netherlands-based
thermoformer and
molder Modiform. Staudinger has
stressed, " Both plastics and fiber
technologies are important to
serve the packaging industry, and
fiber is picking up very fast. "
At a June 2022 briefing attended
by Plastics News, CEO Thomas
Halletz said Kiefel used to try " riding
waves " from issues of waste in
1997-2005, then climate change
in 2005-2015, and now waste and
climate change.There had been
efforts to get away from plastics
and into maize and maize-based
starch materials, " so we were
involved in 1987-2009 in thermoforming
and film cladding starchbased
trays. "
But " high pressure on sustainable
solutions can no longer to be
dismissed, " Halletz added, as " we
have naturally realized we had to
rethink thermoformed products,
their functionality and materials,
tools, machines and automation
needed to produce them. "
As a machinery producer, Kiefel
can advise neutrally on aspects
such as material choice, transport
conditions, stacking capability
and barrier properties. " We
are in the fortunate position of
being able to develop and apply
industrialization to developed but
not yet industrialized products, "
Halletz summarized.
An important partner in Kiefel's
Natureformer developments is
Helsinki-based wood pulp, paper
and other forest products producer
Stora Enso. Its fiber packages
for fiber thermoforming comes
with appropriate favorably priced
chemical additives and include
subscription options.
Stora offers four types
of bleached or unbleached
chemi-thermo mechanical pulp
for the Natureformer: basic without
additives, waterproof with a
sizing agent, wet-strong with an
additional wet strength additive
and " Grease Guard PROTEAN " for
water- and grease-proof applications.
There is also a mixed hard
and soft wood bright-smooth category.
Stora says its fibers can be
recycled five to seven times.
The process
The Natureformer process
starts with pulped wood fiber delivery
in sheets or blocks. A water
spray system dissolves the fibers
into fiber pulp slurry. It is fed
from a slurry tank to a perforated
suction tool insert, which shapes
the preform or " cake " with initial
0.7-millimeter thickness. This
part of the process is completed
within 0.8-1.0 seconds. A water
spray bar removes excess pulp.
Mechanical unheated pre-pressing
with inflated silicone forms
follows. It dewaters the material
down to 33-40 percent water
content by means of an air flow
trough " like a hair dryer, " and
shapes rims. The water content
reduction considerably reduces
energy consumption, says Armin
Dietrich, previously head of fiber
thermoforming at Kiefel and now
packaging sales director.
During hot pressing, a robot
moves the products into the lower
part of the hot-press tool, which
dries the material during thermoforming.
The parts are 95 percent
dry by then and pass to the upper
hot-press tool half, which places
them onto a downstream conveyor
belt. Optional automation options
such as quality inspection,
printing, punching, surface finishing,
waxing, labeling and stacking
can follow thermoforming.
The 10-by-4-meter footprint Natureformer
has a 900-by-600-millimeter
forming area and comes
in two versions, KFT90 Speed
(at K 2022) and KFT90 Flex, the
latter only with fully automated
tool change, 700 grams preferred
product weight and 250-millimeter
maximum product height, the
KFT90 Flex automatic or manual
tool change, 700 grams preferred
product weight and 120 millimeter
maximum product height.
Cycle time is typically 20 seconds.
Tool change is achieved
manually within two hours, automatically
below 15 minutes. Kiefel's
head of research and development,
Matthias Hausmann, said implementation
of recycling water and
process heat, recently lowered energy
consumption to " an absolute
benchmark of 2.5 kW per product. "
Other K highlights
Aside from showing the Natureformer,
a live demonstration runs
at K 2022 with the KMD 78.2 Speed
machine
thermoforming
sheet
made from recyclate into trays.
Although this food and nonfood
packaging machine was shown
at K 2019, where Hausmann said
it was a " best-seller, " it has been
meanwhile improved with easier
and faster tool changing. Hausmann
observed, " With sales having
picked up now, it seemed logical
to take the KMD 78.2 Speed
machine to K 2022. "
Halletz added, " It is presently the
fastest machine in the market. Although
heating energy has been increased
in order to produce faster,
the machine uses less energy than
before. " The KMD 78.2 Speed can
produce thermoformed parts from
conventional virgin, bio-based and
recycled plastics, but also paper.
Halletz says the KMD 78.2 Speed
paper market focus is on " shallow
products with mainly simple geometries, "
admitting the paper or
paperboard 5-10 percent forming
ratio limit is still a challenge.
Also new at K 2022 is the KSA
Kiefel Speed Automation system,
which enables both customer-specific
automation solutions
as well as standard modular automation
units " for the most common
applications. "
BOOK A
BOOTH!
UTECH Middle East Foam & Polyurethane Expo will return to Dubai for the
second time on 5-7 September 2023. It's the only event in the Middle East and Africa
dedicated specifi cally to the foam and polyurethane industries.
Co-located with:
Organised by:
GLOBAL POLYMER GROUP
The fl oor is now open for booth bookings - reserve your location today!
Contact Matt Barber at mabarber@crain.com / +44 (0)7739 302081 for more information.
mefpu.com
http://www.mefpu.com
Plastics News - Show Daily - October 20, 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Plastics News - Show Daily - October 20, 2022
