MACHINERY | TWIN SCREW EXTRUDERS
The Henderson plant will also be used to
support the growth of Entek’s fast-growing lithium battery separator business. The company has embarked on a project, part of the first funding round within the US administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, that aims to build a new plant with capacity for production of up to 1.8bn m2
of
separator materials (enough for more than 1m EVs). The plant will use Entek’s own extrusion equipment and biaxial film stretching technology from Germany’s Brückner. One of the big opportunities for the coming
Above: Entek has invested $15m in its latest US plant in Nevada, which will
become a focus for screw, element and barrel manu- facture
This enables a considerable increase in throughput rate of the overall process when adding lighter bulk materials.” US-based Entek is close to completing the first
phase of a new 30,000m² manufacturing facility at Henderson in Nevada. Around $15m has been invested in the facility, which the company plans to use both to support its current customer base and to develop its wear parts division, which manufac- tures replacement wear parts, including screws and barrels, for both Entek and non-Entek twin-screw extruders. “Increasing our manufacturing capabilities is
important for us; we needed more space, and more workers, to keep up with our growth, includ- ing the growth of our wear parts business,” says Linda Campbell, VP of Extrusion Sales for Entek Manufacturing. “This expansion will help us meet our aggressive forecast for new business in the coming years.”
Alongside the plant investments, Entek says it is also developing what will be its largest twin-screw extruder to date. The new 160mm machine will be targeting high-output applications including masterbatch compounding and is being designed by a team of engineers at the company’s locations in Oregon, Nevada and California, with the first machine scheduled to ship in Q4 2024. Entek’s current largest extruder is a 133mm
Right: Entek says its wear parts business, which makes screw and barrel parts for all compound- ing extruder brands, is growing fast
44
model, although it produces replace- ment parts for extruders up to 250 mm. “We have been making replacement wear parts for this size of machine for almost 20 years for other brands of twin-screw extruders,” says Campbell. “We have seen the market demand for this size and recognised the gap in our Entek machine line-up.”
COMPOUNDING WORLD | March 2023
years for twin screw extruder makers will be in the recycling sector. More specifically in upcycling, where recycled materials are enhanced with additives and reinforcements to improve their properties. Before last year’s K show, Leistritz Managing Director Daniel Nagl explained how invaluable twin screw extruders are to up-cycling. “Other machines can also melt materials, but the twin screw can incorporate additives at the same time. In mechanical recycling, this is how you shift from pure recycling to upcycling. In other words, you can produce higher quality material.” Twin screw compounding equipment also shows benefits in alternative recycling technologies such as solvent-based recycling, sometimes referred to as physical recycling to distinguish it from chemical recycling. “In physical recycling, a solvent is added to a plastic melt to extract a plastic. In this process, degassing is very important. Again, the twin screw is the best choice because it can degas very well,” according to Nagl. “At Leistritz, we see it as our task to further develop all these processes and tech- nologies to make recycling even more efficient and better. This is a very dynamic field.” At the K show, Leistritz launched a new large addition to its iMaxx compounding line. The ZSE 60 iMaxx model uses a Kessler synchronous motor and includes all the features of the iMaxx range. It was shown with a gearbox condition monitoring system and the company’s latest LinXX control system, which is described as an intuitive and customisable touch screen system designed to allow users to monitor key process parameters at a glance. New software tools support detailed machine and process evaluation while the system is OPC-UA compliant. Compounding machinery
and materials handling systems maker Coperion is also strengthening its reach into
www.compoundingworld.com
IMAGE: ENTEK
IMAGE: ENTEK
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