ALTERNATIVE COMPOUNDERS | MACHINERY
growing market. In addition, CPM says it is making significant strides in process automation and optimisation, incorporating controlled process loops and tying its innovations into Industry 4.0 initiatives. “As we continue to advance, the RingEx- truder RE will remain a vital tool for companies looking to enhance their extrusion processes while prioritising sustainability and efficiency,” Fraim said. Last year, Extricom Extrusion, part of the CPM Extrusion Group, delivered a RingExtruder RE to the SKZ Compounding and Extrusion Technology Centre in Würzburg, Germany, to further expand the institute’s technical capabilities. Hatice Malatyali, Group Manager for Extrusion and Compounding at SKZ, said: “Improving process understanding is certainly of great interest to industrial users. This work will then form the basis for application-orient- ed process developments. The advantages of the ring extruder have great potential, especially in the recycling and processing of biopolymers.” Ring extruders produce a good dispersion
effect due to high elongation flow components, while comparatively small screw diameters can reduce shear and pressure peaks in the material with uniform energy input enabling efficient and gentle compounding. At the same time, a large surface area is available for heat exchange with the barrel and core of the extruder. Very good degas- sing is also an advantage, which is why this technology is often used for recycling. The 12 screws also offer the advantage of minimising spreading forces which helps reduce screw and barrel wear leading to long-term cost savings. Buss, the Swiss developer of co-kneader technol-
ogy, was an exhibitor at AMI’s Compounding World Expo Europe in Brussels in September. The Buss Compeo series of machines for polymer com- pounding have a modular structure which can be precisely configured to meet the specific applica- tion. The series was developed for all temperature ranges up to 400°C and given the system’s modular construction and novel process geometries, can be used within an extremely diverse application spectrum, extending far beyond previous Buss Co-Kneader applications. Maintenance outlay is kept low by using highly resistant surface-hardened materials in the process zone. Maintenance is an area of focus for the company as it has also been developing sensor technology for machine condi- tion monitoring. This is at the pre-launch stage and is being developed to provide data to inform decisions on machine maintenance. Buss put its expertise in kneading technology to the test in the successful completion of projects
www.compoundingworld.com
with Chinese customers from State Grid Corp of China, Wanhua, Wanma, and Dewei, involving the production of HV-XLPE (cross-linked polyethylene for high voltage) cable insulation materials. This application places extremely high demands on the quality, purity, and performance of the materials and the systems used, and takes place at moderate and uniform shearing speeds ensuring a tempera- ture below 200° C can be maintained over the entire length of the process without the tempera- ture peaks that occur in other systems. This reduces the degradation of the materials, which impairs the electrical properties of the end product. At the SPE Screw Design Conference in Tewks-
bury, Massachusetts in June, a new technology was presented by Keith Luker, President and CEO of Randcastle Extrusion Systems, a US manufacturer of single screw extruders for laboratory, R&D, and lower output production applications. The Molecu- lar Homogenizer is a single screw dynamic multipli- cative mixer for compounding. In the presentation, Luker said Randcastle has filed patents in Europe and five other countries “for a novel mixing mecha- nism... [which] uses first principle arrangements of the interrupted shear, interrupted elongation, and a mixing flow called inversive mixing”. Among the applications of the new technology,
Luker said: polymer producers could place a Molecular Homogenizer at the end of a polymer reactor, and before pelletising, to improve physical properties and lessen the need for drying; toll compounders could save costs and heat history; in reclaim, higher quality and improved viscosity often lead to increased output; and twin screw users could enhance mixing of actives and other small molecules by adding the Molecular Homogenizer to a twin.
CLICK ON THE LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION: �
www.nichepolymer.com �
www.farrel-pomini.com �
https://extricomextrusion.com �
www.skz.de �
https://busscorp.com �
www.randcastletechnology.com
October 2024 | COMPOUNDING WORLD 69
Above: Buss Compeo
machines use the company’s co-kneader technology
IMAGE: BUSS
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