MACHINERY | TWIN SCREW EXTRUDERS
Entek takes aim on extrusion wear parts
The opening of a new 2,990m² production plant at Henderson in Nevada last year gave US compounding machinery maker Entek the opportunity to launch a new business unit. Its Wear Parts Division manufactures and supplies replacement wear parts for all brands of twin-screw extruders on fast delivery. “Even though the global supply chain disruptions have eased a bit recently,
it’s not unusual for companies to have to wait 4-6 months or more for replace- ment screws and barrels. Entek knows as well as anyone that these are unacceptable lead times and we are committed to changing that in a big way,” says Tammy Straw, Director of the new division. “We are currently making screw inventory and are stocking many sizes for both Entek and other-than-Entek twin-screw extruders. Our lead times are four weeks if not on the shelf, and we are on our way to two-week lead times for new screw production,” she says. �
www.entek.com
moisture from feedstocks used in recycling and it says the dehydration function integrated into its machines simplifies the processing of feedstocks with relatively high moisture content. JSW Europe can also install Continuous Melt Filters to handle materials with high contamination levels and, in the field of PET mechanical recycling, the use of these technologies has enabled optimisation of the process to raise quality and save energy.
Below: Comac’s control
technologies place emphasis on improved product quality and minimal waste
Recycling gains Italian machinery maker ICMA San Giorgio has also benefited from the ongoing growth and investment in the recycling sector. It recently supplied two large compounding/recycling lines to an undisclosed European company processing post-consumer waste (PCR). It says the machines were configured in its Innovation Hub at San Giorgio su Legnano near Milan, where the devolatisation process was optimised and the stripping agent-based odour reduction technology fine-tuned. The Hub is equipped with 25mm and 60mm diameter ma- chines from the company’s MCM HT line, allowing processes and formulations to be developed and scaled to industrial production volumes. Italian company Comac has long been involved in the design, engineering, and production of
IMAGE: COMAC
extruders and complete production plant. It claims a high level of expertise in the configuration of screw elements to enable dispersion of pigments and other additives within the polymer compound, which it augments with various automation initiatives to improve quality and reduce waste. An example includes automatic control of the volumetric dosing unit, where Comac says its software automatically adjusts dosing speed to keep the measured torque at the extruder motor constant. With motor torque corresponding to the specific energy transferred to the material for fusion and dispersion of the pigments and/or additives, it says this helps to guarantee consistency of the final product throughout the production batch. The control system also regulates the tempera-
ture of the output cooling tank to effectively cool the strands while reducing the risk of breakage and consequent production waste. Comac has also linked the speed of the pelletiser to the flow rate of the extruder.
German twin screw extruder maker Leistritz Extrusionstechnik recently extended its line-up with the introduction of the ZSE 60 MAXX-HD. It will be showing an example in its display at the NPE exhibition in Orlando, Florida, US, in May. The company says the ZSE-60 Maxx features a modular design for barrels and screws and is rated for operation at up to 425°C. The machine on display will be equipped with an LSB-side stuffer for downstream introduction of fillers and an LSA swing gate strand die with provision for filtration. It will also show ZSE-27 Maxx and ZSE-40 Maxx models and ZSE-18 lab machine. US twin screw machinery maker Entek says it continues to work on development
28 COMPOUNDING WORLD | March 2024
www.compoundingworld.com
IMAGE: ENTEK MANUFACTURING
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