Walking by the humming blown film lines and pipe and profile extruders cranking out product, K'95 visitors will see more advances in flexibility, modular machine setups and higher throughput than ever before. Much of the news will be in pipe and profiles: rates topping 1,000 pounds an hour; high density polyethylene pipe running at high outputs and big diameters; a quick-change pipe extrusion head.
On the film and sheet side, K offers innovations in automatic gauge control and die-gap control and sheet lines that can be changed easily. Multilayer film extrusion continues to be a hot market. Look for higher rates in compounding extruders as well.
A pre-K sampling follows:
Leistritz AG (Hall 14, Stand D49) will display new, larger screw diameter sizes, as large as 135 millimeters, for its co-rotating and counter-rotating twin-screw extruders.
In high-speed counter-rotating extruders, Leistritz has developed screw designs called ``counterflight'' that allow the counter-rotating, intermeshing screws to use the same revolutions per minute and horsepower as traditional co-rotating intermeshing screws - typically as fast as 500 rpm. Normally, counter-rotating screws must run more slowly.
Other new twin-screws will include the ZSE-60 and ZSE-75 extruders, which can operate in either co-rotating or counter-rotating modes.
Welex Inc. (Hall 15, Stand A19) will show its Unistack multiposition roll stack system for sheet extrusion, with a new universal-jointed die adapter that automatically changes the die position to follow the roll stack position.
Welex has filed for patents in several countries on the device. The Unistack allows sheet extruders flexibility to run in vertical, inclined or horizontal configurations.
K'95 also will mark the first public showing of the U.S. company's V-PET system, which ex-trudes PET sheet without predrying. At the show, Welex will extrude sheet on a system with capacity to 880 pounds an hour.
Welex also will show its Ultima III controller, a color, touch screen priced at about $30,000.
A new sheet line with automatic thickness control, a new profile extrusion die and two new Repiquet extruders will grace the Davis-Standard exhibit (Hall 14, Stand C63). Killion Extruders, purchased by Davis-Standard earlier this year, will retain its booth at the American Pavilion (Hall 8, Stand B1-B5).
Davis-Standard said changing sheet thickness on its ``hands-off'' sheet line is much more automatic than traditional lines. A patent is pending on the automatic, fast-gap die control. The device also automatically controls flex. At K, the system will feature a gear-driven, horizontal Exmplar II roll stand with a closed-loop water heat transfer system for each roll. An Epic controller, made by Davis-Standard's HES group, runs the die and flex adjustment.
U.S.-based Davis-Standard, a division of Crompton & Knowles Corp., also will show a small-diameter extruder with a new L-I profile extrusion die, designed to reduce areas of melt stagnation. Conical exit breaker plates replace conventional flat breakers to reduce resin degradation and improve melt quality.
At the Repiquet booth, a 31/2-inch grooved feed extruder will make HDPE pipe. The rate is 880-1,100 pounds an hour. European pipe extrusion companies typically used grooved feed extruders.
Also new from Repiquet is a 112-mm twin-screw extruder for PVC, with a heavy-duty forced lubricated and water-cooled gearbox. Output rate is 1,199-1,800 pounds an hour.
The Killion exhibit will show a fiber spinning machine, a cast film line and a redesigned Versa cutter for use on tubing and profiles.
Reifenhauser GmbH will show five extrusion systems, including three for pipe extrusion, at the K show (Hall 15, Stand C20). Attendees will be shuttled to Reifenhauser's headquarters in nearby Troisdorf, Germany, to see PVC profile extrusion at more than 1,000 pounds an hour and other demonstrations.
On the K show floor, Reifenhauser will introduce a new 100-mm extruder for blowing film from high-molecular-weight, HDPE. At the show the system will make thin-guage packaging film at rates up to 1,000 pounds an hour. Reifenhauser's newest line for thermoforming sheet will make glycol-modified PET sheet.
Pipe machines will extrude winding cores, PVC sewer pipe and coextruded gas pipe and sewer pipe. The PVC pipe line will run up to 1,800 pounds an hour.
More blown film lines will run at Troisdorf, including one making three-layer cast stretch film from linear low density PE stretch film, a five-layer system making polypropylene thermoforming sheet and a line extruding foamed PVC sheet for construction. A fourth line will make PP and low density polystyrene for food trays and cups.
Visitors to Troisdorf also will see Reifenhauser's newest profile extrusion system. The company claims its Bitruder BT 3800 will be extruding PVC profiles at rates to 1,210 pounds an hour. A new high-speed line to extrude gas pipe with an outer diameter as large as 10 inches also will be shown.
Dutch extruder supplier De Rollepaal BV Machinefabriek (Hall 12, Stand A51) will roll out a number of pipe extrusion innovations.
To meet demand for multilayer pipe in Europe, especially pipe with recycled plastic, Rollepaal has developed a new way to distribute the melt during extrusion. The technology makes it possible to change the thickness of the skin layers.
Rollepaal also will show new pipe extrusion heads that allow a change to a different pipe diameter in only 25 minutes. Also, the company has extended the range of its twin-screw R2-125-25D PVC extruders with a new screw, new drive and bearings, new controller and peripheral equipment that slides out of the machine base.
The company also will show a new scanner to check wall thickness right after the extrusion head, and a fully automatic cutting and chamfering machine.
Berstorff Maschinenbau GmbH (Hall 14, Stand D35), will display four extruders and two pelletizers.
A co-rotating, twin-screw compounding extruder, the ZE 110-A, will incorporate a new, higher-torque gearbox designed to improve throughput rates. The extruder will be equipped with an underwater pelletizer.
On the laboratory side, the ZE 25 twin-screw extruder is available as a co-rotating design with an option to convert to counter-rotating.
Berstorff also will show a 10-screw reactor/devolatilizer/mixer designed for specialty materials such as nylons and polyesters. A water-ring pelletizer also will be shown.
The German extruder manufacturer also will show a foam line for thermoplastic elastomers, using water as the blowing agent.
Battenfeld Gloucester Engineering Co. Inc. (Hall 14, Stand E21) will demonstrate its new gravimetric blending equipment,making LLDPE film. The blenders are also used on sheet extrusion.
The gravimetric blender, like the entire line running at K, will be fully integrated through Battenfeld Gloucester's Extol Process Control System. The blenders have stainless steel hoppers and augers.
Other technology that will be shown includes a Model 1008-D winter with touch screen operator controller, three Contracool air-cooled extruders, a 14-inch internal bubble cooling die, an Autoprofile air ring, air cage and air board collapsers and the Traversanip oscillating hauloff.
Blown and cast film extrusion with a new, fully modular design will be displayed in the Windmoeller & Hoelscher Corp. exhibit (Hall 15, Stand C50).
An 83-inch-wide Varex, three-layer blown film line will be fitted with W&H's Optifil P-2 automatic gauge control. Also, athree-layer pressure-sensitive protective film will be run with an extremely tacky outer layer and wound onto the new W&H Filmatic M winder.
Another production line will make cast film for packaging from high-clarity PP.
Hosokawa Alpine AG (Hall 7, Stand B40 and Hall 14, Stand C1), which is represented in the United States by Alpine American, will show two blown film extrusion systems.
One will demonstrate Alpine's entry into the market for processing monolayer LDPE andLLDPE films, a 120-mm barrel extruder. The exhibit will feature two other working pieces of equipment: an Alpine Elba bag making system and a reclaim system.
Alpine also will shuttle visitors, by chartered flight, to its technical center in Augsburg, Germany. Products displayed there will include an extruder with a five-layer coextrusion die.
Werner & Pfleiderer GmbH and its parent, Krupp Hoesch Maschinenbau, will exhibit in a joint booth (Hall 12, Stand A13).
W&P will show two new, larger sizes of its ZSK twin-screw extruders for compounding and pelletizing. The machines have improved degassing capacity and more torque than earlier ZSK extruders. W&P also will show the EPC 32, an automation system for the ZSK machines.
A new UG 500, low-pressure, pocket-type die plate for underwater pelletizing also will be shown. The companies also will show new compact ZS-B twin-screw feeders, designed for the ZSK extruders.
W&P also has developed a new range of blow-off equipment to remove cooling water from extruded plastic strands and strips during compounding. The compact unit, model IAV 400, uses two rows of adjustable, high-intensity air jets.
Black Clawson Sano Inc. (Hall 14, Stand B62), will show a new Black Hawk turret winder for its blown film extrusion systems.
Large diameter reel winding in a compact space is provided by a phantom axis turret design with rigid cross members. The turret index has a motor brake and triple-reduction gearing.
Black Clawson Sano, a U.S. machinery maker, also will show its Serpentine System, a side-fed modular die for extruding high-barrier specialty films with three to nine layers.
Betol Machinery Ltd. (Hall 15, Stand A59) will extrude picture frames from foamed plastic and a medical tubing line. The medical line also will show the new fully clad medical vacuum bath and a servo-driven cut-ter said to be easier to use.
Betol also will show a Manumold 30-ton insert molding machine equipped with a shuttle table.
Betol's U.S. affiliate, Betol-Francis Shaw, also will show a new range of high-output HDPE pipe extruders.
The machines are based on the company's Mark 5 series, but feature a new barrier flight screw design and a grooved feed section. One example of the improved output, according to Betol-Francis Shaw, is a PE gas pipe production rate of 1,125 pounds an hour at a screw speed of 115 rotations per minute and a melt temperature of 395§ F. All the machines have a 30-to-1 length-to-diameter ratio.
Swiss machinery maker Axon AB Plastics Machinery (Hall 7, Stand E37) is touting its PSE single-screw technology as an alternative to twin-screw extruders for pelletizing.
Features of the extruder include a metered, starved feeding of material, a high screw speed and a patented screw design.
Axon also will run a lab-size extruder making pellets.
Swiss mixer manufacturer List AG (Hall 7, Stand A67) will feature its List CRP co-rotating processor.
The machine has two parallel agitators with radially mounted disks and are heated or cooled, joined by U-shaped mixing elements.
The intermeshing shafts are self-cleaning.