Sustainable Plastics - July/August 2022 - 26

extrusion
Extrusion trends:
circularity and
sustainability are
here to stay
Quite a lot has been happening in the
world of extrusion, especially with K
2022 looming. Here's a brief look at some
of the news so far. By Karen Laird.
Battenfeld-Cincinnati to
bring innovative water
management solutions
to K 2022
At this year's K trade fair in Düsseldorf,
the booth of extrusion expert
battenfeld-cincinnati (Hall 16
/ B19) will reflect the main topics
of the show's major themes: circular
economy, digitalisation and
climate protection, with a focus on
the latter, said CEO Gerold Schley.
The company will be presenting
a number of new products
in that area, from drip irrigation
to water management systems.
" For us, climate protection
is directly connected to water
management, and agriculture is
a heavy user of water because of
the irrigation systems used. Many
of these systems are dependent
on lagoons, causing problems
such as clogging and hard-todetect
dripper and water outlet
positions, " he explained.
The company has developed
a new and simple hybrid dripper,
which visitors to the booth
will see in a video presentation
of the new test line at the company's
technical laboratory in
Bad Oeynhausen. Developed by
battenfeld-cincinnati and a partner
company, the drippers are
injected through the tube mould
and directly welded onto the
pipe while it is still hot. The simple
and ingenious design of the
26
July/August 2022
dripper ensures a uniform and
continuous distribution of water.
Instead of punching holes for
the water outlets, these are cut,
ruling out punching failures. The
dripper design and high velocity
water flow ensures that clogging
does not occur.
At the other extreme, the
company is also presenting its
new line for the production of
large-diameter water pipes - up
to 2,700 mm in diameter. The
new 4 m long segments of the
downstream unit offer an alternative
to previous oversized
equipment and related transport
problems. For the first time, the
brand presents vacuum tanks
and spray baths in segments of
just 4 m in length. These individual
aggregates can be easily
transported and are easy to assemble
at the production site.
Sustainability is also the focus
regarding an application
for synthetic flooring. Whereas
PVC was formerly the main
material used for this product,
today PP is increasingly opted
for . The multilayer product
can also feature a core layer of
highly filled recyclate. Flooring
producer Classen recently purchased
an extrusion line with
a battenfeld-cincinnati MultiTouch
roll stack for this application.
The melt film is fed into
the 2.6 m-wide Multi-Touch roll
stack, where pre-calibration
takes place, before the board
passes through several more
rolls for recalibration. In this
way, the surface of the board
is continuously in contact with
the roll surfaces over a considerable
period of time, with the
result of perfect dimensional
stability and excellent visual attributes.
The haul-off is followed
by a cutter. The complete line
is controlled by Bctouch UX,
which is integrated in the customer's
PDA system.
In the circular economy
space, battenfeld-cincinnati
will be showing a high-speed
extruders for waste-to oil applications.
The granulate is melted
by the extruder and degassed
via vacuum zones. In this way,
volatile foreign substances are
extracted and pumped off separately.
Battenfeld-cincinnati
specially developed a new processing
unit and screw geometry
for this application.
As well, the company's recycling
solutions will be on display.
Its STARextruders, used for producing
PET sheets from new
or recycled materials has long
been a best-seller in this area. In
response for the rising demand
for recycled material, these will
be joined by 2 new machines
for this application for the processing,
among others, of recycled
PVC window frames: the
conventionally designed twinscrew
AglomEX and the AglomEX
EMS, a counter-rotating twin
screw extruder with electrically
driven shear-gap adjustment
(EMS). Through longitudinal
movement of the barrel by an
electric motor, the shear gap can
be steplessly adjusted.
In addition, battenfeld-cincinnati
is rolling out a new, uniform
design across all its extruder
models, which, said Schley, will
be unveiled at K.
" The company offers equipment
for the manufacture of
virtually all types of semi-finished
extruded products, from
pipes, tubes, profiles, plates, to
films and sheets. Because they
are all manufactured at a single
source, they are perfectly geared
technically to work together
without any interface problem
and integrated into the intuitive
Bctouch UX control system, " he
explained. The new design offers
greater functionality, with better
accessibility and ease of use, including
easy cleaning features,
and a significantly lower energy
consumption through the further
optimisation of each separate
component. " Now, with the new
design, they will also be visually
immediately identifiable as part
of the BC family. "
Erema introducing 7 new
recycling systems at K fair
At this year's K fair, Erema, Pure
Loop, Umac, 3s, Keycycle and
Plasmac - the companies that
together make up the Erema
Group - will for the first time
Battenfield-Cincinnati
is keeping the new
design 'under wraps'.
Sustainable Plastics - July/August 2022

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