PRODUCTION | PURGING COMPOUNDS
Right: One of Asaclean Sun Plastech’s range of purging
compounds
compounds actually de-polymerise the residual resin in the machine. Our chemical reaction is the breaking down of the materials being removed, not the foaming of foaming agents. For this reason, RapidPurge materials are particularly well suited for compounding applications.” Reducing plastic scrap and waste is certainly the main driving force for new developments in purging and cleaning compounds for the plastics compounding and masterbatch industry, according to Asaclean Sun Plastech. “It is a hot button issue right now in the plastics industry and reducing scrap is better for processors, customers, the environment and their bottom line,” says Jarred Packard, Project Engineer. “Processors are focusing on doing their part to
take care of the world’s pollution problem, and that is a good thing. Engineers are looking for stronger and lighter plastics that have heightened resistance to harsh environments, such as chemicals, pressure, and extreme temperatures. The introduction of more speciality resins operating at higher tempera- tures is an issue. As more specialised and high temperature resins are developed, the purging compound industry needs to evolve to meet these new requirements too,” he says.
Below: Purging compounds can dramatically ease cleaning of screws and screw components
Temperature challenges Packard highlights other issues the industry is working on, including the need to develop grades that can clean at very low and very high operating temperatures. “We are also continuing to serve several markets using a combination of high performance mechanical purging compounds and industry-leading chemical purges that are opti- mised for low-flow and low-pressure environ- ments,” he says. “We also have several grades, like UF2, that can be used for specific ‘on the fly’ purging scenarios so that the downstream equip- ment does not need to be shut down.” Asaclean Sun Plastech has recently launched an ‘introduction-to-purging’ one-day programme to
educate people new to the industry. “Depending on the need we either do webinars or fly out and give a demonstration and presentation in person,” says Packard. “We can customise the presentation and demonstration for specific needs to enable effective training.” French manufacturer of purging compounds
Polytechs has recently renamed CleanX, its purging compound range for extrusion and injection moulding, as Clean Xpress. “The major driving force for Polytechs in developing new purging compounds is to reduce downtime,” says Maarten Bloem, Sales Director. Alongside the new name, the company has launched a new Clean Xpress website that provides technical information and videos on purging issues, product grades and applications.
Collaborative approaches “We are working with OEMs on the purging step and collaborating with polymer equipment manufacturers. One partnership involves an OEM producing blown film and cast film lines in Ger- many who worked with Polytechs on a common issue in the film market – cleaning between continuous production of barrier films. Polytechs has been involved in developing solutions through Clean Xpress upgrades. We are able to clean extruders producing different layers of LDPE, LLDPE, tie layer, EVOH and PA6/PA66, which have an adhesion to metal affinity. This caused the barrier film producer a lot of issues in terms of cleaning times, impacting negatively on productiv- ity, but is something we have solved with new Clean Xpress grades,” Bloem says. “Further new developments will be presented at K2019 for purging engineering plastics such as PA 66, BOPET films and extruders with low diameter and expensive filters, as well as new purging developments for the automotive injection mould-
74 COMPOUNDING WORLD | September 2019
www.compoundingworld.com
PHOTO: ASACLEAN SUN PLASTECH
PHOTO: ASACLEAN SUN PLASTECH
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