machinery | Pelletizers KM Berstorff gains in PVC


KraussMaffei Berstorff reported strong demand for air-cooled pelletizing technology for PVC last year and said it saw particularly good market potential for systems for C-PVC pellet production in Asia and India, where the material is widely used in pipe fi ttings for hot and cold water. The company says benefi ts of its air-cooled technology in such applications include ease of operation, rapid cleaning, and elimination of pellet sticking. KrauusMaffei Berstorff parent KraussMaffei Group was acquired by ChemChina earlier this month. See page 5 for more details.  www.kraussmaffeiberstorff.com


matic regrinding cycle for pelletizer knives and trend graphs for variables including motor current, speed, and pelletizer-knife wear. “We are starting to see more requests for closed-loop control and integration with the extruder,” notes Gary Niemenski, sales and operations manager for Econ USA. Econ also recently updated the EUP 10 laboratory


pelletizer. Labs can benefi t from the quick startup and safety features of the system, which is designed for small batches, says Niemenski. All components are modular, which reduces the weight that the operators need to physically move when cleaning, he adds.


Growing in pelletizers Diversifi ed manufacturing group Dover has been strengthening its position in pelletizing technology. Late in 2015 its Maag subsidiary, a business unit within Dover’s Fluids segment that includes pelletizer maker Maag Automatik, acquired pelletizer technology fi rms Gala Industries and Reduction Engineering Scheer. “Gala and RE Scheer will appear on the market under their existing brand names for the time being. All three companies will continue to operate its sales and service organizations worldwide,” according to Iris Fischer, marketing manager at Maag Pump Systems. Maag Automatik recently introduced a new technology


Figure 1: Mechanism for creation of voids and shape irregularities in plastic pellets during cooling


to address the problem of voids inside of pellets. The Opti- mized Temperature Pelletizing (OTP) used with Maag’s Sphero underwater pelletizing system process is a “void free approach” for pelletizing special engineering polymers. While the cooling behaviour of different types of plastic particles or pellets varies, voids generally occur in pellets because the poor thermal conductivity of plastics allows the outer surface of each pellet to cool fi rst. In some cases, the outer surface cools during the pelletizing process but the center of the pellet does not, potentially resulting in a void or misshapen pellet (Figure 1). Although voids can be found in a wide variety of


polymers, they are more typically a problem for high-temperature thermoplastics, such as polycarbon- ate, because the process is characterised by a steeper temperature gradient. The solution, explains Fischer at Maag, is to reduce the temperature difference between the hot pellet and the cooling water by increasing the temperature of the latter.


Click on the links for more information:  www.reductionengineering.com  www.bayplasticsmachinery.com  www.nordson-k.com  www.maag.com  www.econ.eu


Source: Maag 36 COMPOUNDING WORLD | January 2016 www.compoundingworld.com


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84