Fakuma 2015 | exhibition review
There was plenty for compounding visitors to see at Fakuma 2015, despite the German show’s roots in injection moulding. Peter Mapleston reports
Fakuma 2015 plays host to compound innovations
Most visitors go to the Fakuma plastics exhibition in Friedrichshafen, Germany, to catch up on the latest developments in injection moulding technology. However, organiser P E Schall has in recent years drawn in exhibitors and visitors from other fi elds of plastics processing and there are now a good sprinkling of extrusion developments to take in, too. Compounding technology features high on that list. Feddem was talking about its latest and largest
twin-screw extruder at the show. The FED 82 MTS is capable of outputs of between two and four tonnes/h, although the machine’s large size (screws are 82 mm in diameter) prevented it from being on the company’s stand. Instead, a much smaller FED 26 MTS was on display.
MTS units have an ID:OD ratio of 1.55 and are
intended principally for compounding engineering thermoplastics. Managing director Dieter Gross said the company is working on further developments, including customized models and MTV units with higher ID:OD ratios (around 1.8) for processing highly fi lled materials. An MTV model with a 117-mm diameter is currently in production. Feddem parent Feddersen Group, which also includes engineering plastics compounder Akro-Plastic and masterbatch producer AF-Color, has coined the
www.compoundingworld.com
expression ICX, for Innovative Compounding and eXtrusion technology. “This relates to how the group companies cooperate in the development of equipment and how we use it, so that we can offer products—ma- terials and equipment—with the same high quality on a worldwide basis,” said Gross. Akro-Plastic has operations in Brazil and China, as
well as in Germany. Managing Director Dirk Steinbrück, who also holds the same post at its two subsidiaries AF-Color and Bio-Fed (which make colour and additive masterbatch and supply biodegradable masterbatches and compounds respectively), pointed out that all group companies use Feddem compounding extruders in all their operations. Akro-Plastic was in fact the fi rst compounder to take delivery of an FED 82 MTS. KraussMaffei Berstorff highlighted its ZE BluePower
range of compounding extruders. These were launched in prototype form at K 2013, and the company has been rolling them out commercially during this year. There are four models, with screw diameters of 42, 52, 65 and 80 mm. B luePower units have higher specifi c volumes than the models they replace, with an ID:OD ratio of 1.65. Maximum torque is 16 NM/cm3
. One of the most
important features of the new units is the gearbox, said Schmitt, which has an effi ciency of 98%, compared with 96.5% on the previous generation. The cooling system
November 2015 | COMPOUNDING WORLD 17
Main image: More than 45,000 people attended last month’s
Fakuma trade fair in Germany
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