MAINTENANCE | PURGING COMPOUNDS
Above: Völpker sees its universal Cevo-clean J-1819 grade offering a flexible purging option for compounders
procedures is very important for best results.” Another Serell tip for compounders is to use the
‘disco purge’ - a simple but effective process that can be applied to twin-screw as well as single- screw extruders. It involves stopping the machine screws for a short period of time (ten seconds is sufficient) and then restarting and bringing them back up to speed. This exerts more cleaning/ scrubbing force against the screw flights and can be done several times during a purge. It works whether a purging compound is being used, or just flushing with the next resin. RapidPurge is currently focusing on a purge compound specifically for masterbatch colorant manufacturers. “The extremely high concentration of pigment makes changeovers especially difficult in these applications,” says Serell. “Our approach will be a little bit different than traditional mechani- cal or chemical compounds. We are focusing in this case on the pigments more than the resins. Since the chemical makeup is different, we need to employ a novel technology. We have some final technical hurdles to overcome, but we expect to be launching these grades before this time next year.” The current market for purging and cleaning
compounds in plastics manufacturing is expected to grow at a significant rate in the next few years, reports Völpker Spezialprodukte. It cites a report from Precision Business Insights that forecasts 8.5% CAGR globally over the 2023-2029 period and identifies extrusion as a growing application area. According to Dr Lutz Matthies, Head of Business Development at Völpker, there are a number of influences driving new developments in purging and cleaning. “These include the increasing demand for high-quality and consistent plastic products in various end-use industries, such as automotive, construction, packaging and electronics. These industries require plastic products that have specific properties, such as colour, strength, durability, and resistance to heat, chemicals and abrasion. To achieve these properties, plastic manufacturers need to use purging compounds that can effectively remove any contamination, degradation or colour change from the processing equipment.” He says environmental concerns also play a part.
“There is also rising awareness and regulatory pressure to reduce the environmental impact of plastics. Manufacturers are looking for purging compounds that are economical in use and compliant with the environmental standards and regulations. Purging compounds can also help to reduce energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and waste generation of plastic manu- facturing processes.” The latest development from Völpker is its
Cevo-clean ‘one 4 all concentrate’. The Cevo-clean J-1819 grade is a cleaning concentrate that can be used for extruders, injection moulding machines and hot runner systems. It is designed to be used diluted with the polymer to be processed, which the company says means only one cleaning concentrate is required for nearly all commonly used polymers. Völpker says Cevo-clean J-1819 is designed to enable a fast material and colour change, so
DON’T MISS THESE ISSUES OF
CLICK ON THE COVERS TO VIEW
NANOCOMPOSITES
MINERAL FILLERS
IMAGE: VÖLPKER SPEZIALPRODUKTE
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
