exhibition review | Fakuma 2015
pellet shape, higher bulk density and fewer fines. OTP overcomes this drawback by using a cutting chamber that is maintained under pressure, enabling the water temperature to rise to well over 100°C. In the transfer unit, the pellets are separated from the overheated water and handed over to the second cooling circuit, operating at less than 95°C. Aydin said first sales of OTP systems are expected very soon. Aydin also drew attention to the massive reduction in
Above:
Reduction Engineering’s SGS E pelletizer gains remote control
and easier cleaning and the controller can now be mounted in various positions on the unit. No longer integrated into the cabinet, the controller is now a separate unit attached by a cable. This allows the operator to walk around the machine with it, attaching as required to one of several magnetic panels. This is said to be particularly useful for operations where the pelletizer may be switched from one line to another, or where adequate space is not available on the same side of the line.
The wider SGS L-10 range, meanwhile, which is
intended for compounding lines, gets a redesign that makes it easier to clean. The front part of the cutting chamber, including the inlet chute and feed rolls, can now be pulled forward on linear guides to allow fast access. The SGS L-10 comes in in four sizes with working widths from 100 to 400 mm and throughputs up to 4 tonnes/h. Fakuma came too early for Maag to discuss its
Right: Maag showed its sixth genera- tion Extrex melt pump
(foreground) against
its larger predecessor
biggest news, the acquisition of underwater pelletizing equipment specialist Gala (see page 7). Instead the company turned the spotlight on a sixth-generation Extrex melt pump and Optimized Temperature Pelletiz- ing (OTP), as well as a new design for one of its piston-type melt filters (described in the September edition of Compounding World). Maag said OTP opens the way to handle technical thermoplastics with high melt temperatures, notably polycarbonate, in its own underwater pelletizing system - Sphero. Alaaddin Aydin, director of the Maag Automa- tik extrusion business unit, said that it has been very difficult to pelletize such materials under water without producing voids in the pellets until now due to the high temperature difference between the water and the polymer. This freezes the pellet skin, preventing it from shrinking as it cools. As a consequence, producers have had to use strand pelletizing, losing out on advantages of underwater pelletizing such as a more spherical
20 COMPOUNDING WORLD | November 2015
size between the new sixth-generation Extrex melt pump and its predecessor. This has been made possible through the use of new gear and bearing geometries (and other undisclosed features made possible with new machining technologies and construction materi- als) that cut internal leakages to half those of the old one. The result is that the same throughput can be achieved with a much smaller bore. He said the new model can run at speeds around twice those of the previous generation while keeping the bearings at more or less the same temperature. The new pump can also handle melt viscosities rang-
ing over five orders of magnitude—much broader than previously. “We can now offer melt pumps for applica- tions where in the past they would not normally be used,” he said. “If volumetric efficiency is below 70%, melt pumps don’t make sense, but with this new generation the figure is 85%.” Another company highlighting screen changers, gear pumps and underwater pelletizers was Nordson Corp, which includes BKG and Kreyenborg. Nordson BKG puts its pelletizers into three groups (Master-Line, Combi- Line, and Opti-Line) with increasingly more elaborate or sophisticated features, greater throughput, and higher cost. It said recent innovations have enhanced the performance of all three systems. A new water filtration system for Opti-Line pelletiz-
ers uses more than 90% less energy than standard systems and cuts overall pelletizer power usage by 10 to 17%, for example. For Master-Line pelletizers, a new
www.compoundingworld.com
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