MACHINERY | MATERIALS HANDLING
Right: At Plast, Plas Mec showed two flagship
machines – the Combimix-HC and TRR
container mixer
7,500kg (16,600lbs) of mixed material per hour. Designed on a modular principle, these mixers can be put to use in most applications because their sizes, drive units and equipment options can be individually configured. Northern Pipe had used an MTI heating/cooling
mixer combination for around 30 years, and installed a new system in 2014. “At that time, it was not possible to install a
The M2000/K8000 unit features an 8,000 litre cooling vessel and is over 7m (23ft) long and nearly 5m (16.5ft) high. Installing the system – the largest heating/cooling mixer combination MTI has ever supplied to the USA – will almost double mixing capacity at the customer’s site. Burkhard Wulf, area sales manager at MTI, said:
“We have seen a trend towards increasing produc- tion volumes in the US market for some time.” The M2000/K8000 is a heating/cooling mixer
combination for a typical batch volume of 950kg (around 2,100lbs). It can provide more than
Handling innovation
Motan has moved closer to picking a winner in its biennial innovation awards – with six entrants presenting their ideas in detail to the competition jury in July. The winner will be an- nounced at an award ceremony at the Fakuma exhibition later this month. The award is held every two years. Motan says that award encourages
entrants to come up with “resourceful ideas” – and exploit them to the full. “Too many good ideas are never developed or pursued,” said Sandra Füllsack, managing director of Motan. “As a result, the industry loses enor- mous potential. We want to find these treasures which are often found inside people’s heads and left to languish.” The nominated project ideas are: Adaptive central vacuum control (Stefan Endres); Controlled conveying of bulk solids (Peter Haupt); Gravimet-
32 Six entrants to Motan’s innovation award presented their ideas to the jury in July
ric, selective throughput control with batch traceability (Reinhard Herro); Local visualisation and control on a mobile device (Phillip Mählmeyer); An efficient, flexible system to install material and vacuum lines (Bernd Michael); and, Gentle pneumatic conveying of materials (Karl Wolfgang). The most important criteria for the
jury of four were: degree of innova- tion; relevance for practical use in the
PIPE & PROFILE EXTRUSION | October 2018
plastics industry; and, feasibility and market potential within materials handling. The jury will decide on an overall winner – and how the €20,000 prize money will be split between the three top-placed finalists. As well as prize money, winners will
receive support with patent applica- tions, and development of their innovation until it is ready for market.
www.pipeandprofile.com
larger system as we had used the available floor space already,” said Derek Hanson, vice president of engineering at Northern Pipe. And, at the Plast exhibition in Italy, Plas Mec showed two flagship machines: the Combimix-HC mixing system and the TRR container mixer. The first, used mainly for PVC dryblends, comprises a TRM heating mixer and an HEC cooling mixer. The TRR container mixer is a multipurpose unit for applications where production changes are frequent and easy cleaning is very important – mas- terbatch is a typical example. Commercial director Massimo Grigolon says Plas Mec has increased its focus in recent years on efficiency, productivity and safe operation. He cites an improved water circuit design with enhanced cooling capacity on the HEC cooling mixer, as well
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