Battenfeld targeting silage film market
Battenfeld Gloucester Engineering Co. Inc. officials are aiming their sites on the market for machines for stretch film for silage, used by farmers to store grass, corn, grains and vegetables. The film also can be used to make large bags and covers to store agricultural products.
The company has modified its blown film equipment for the silage film market. Key elements include a device to inject the additive polyisobutylene, screw design for optimal mixing of the PIB, the die, haul-off and winder.
Battenfeld Gloucester modified its Traversanip with special nonstick turning bars, a ceramic-coated steel nip roll and a special silicone rubber roll, all cooled by water. The nip configuration is changed into an S-wrap.
White silage films reflect the sun's rays and reduce heat buildup during storage.
The film structure generally is an inside and outside layer of linear low density polyethylene, color, PIB and additives to protect against ultraviolet light.
``What is most important is the way we mix the PIB, our ability to obtain high output rates, gauge, and the controlled bloom of PIB,'' said Carl Johnson, product sales manager for blown film at Battenfeld Gloucester, based in Gloucester, Mass.
Tel. 978-282-9450, fax 978-282-9111, e-mail [email protected]
Extrusion line makes foamed PVC sheet
Vienna, Austria-based Cincinnati Extrusion GmbH has developed an extrusion line to make foamed PVC sheet for trim boards. The firm also announced a new high-speed extruder.
So far, Cincinnati Extrusion has sold 10 of the foamed PVC sheet lines - four to U.S. customers and six to customers in Asia.
In the United States, PVC trim boards are replacing wood products as borders around windows and doors, in roof flashing and as trim boards for wall paneling. The foam strips are finished with semi-gloss or an embossed wood texture, supplied in a range of widths, some with mill-cut contours such as rounded edges. The board also can be surface-embossed with lines to look more like wood.
The entire U.S. trim board market is $3 billion, and PVC products have just a 7 percent share, so Cincinnati Extrusion said there is plenty of room for growth.
The production line makes PVC foamed sheet that can be split into trim boards, then cut to length in-line. An Argos 135 parallel twin-screw extruder is used.
Cincinnati Extrusion worked with EMO Extrusion Molding GmbH of Micheldorf, Austria, to design a sheet die that can handle high output rates. The volume of the distributor channel has been increased, so less pressure builds up than in conventional dies.
Since a uniform foam structure is achieved across the entire width of the die, dies with a reduced overall width can be used - which also reduces edge trim, Cincinnati Extrusion said.
In other news, the company is developing a high-speed extruder as a prototype in its laboratory in Vienna. Engineers modified the screw and the barrel feed zone, and doubled the extruder's drive capacity and screw speed. The screw diameter is 60 millimeters.
Running at a maximum screw speed, the extruder can pump out 2,200 pounds of polyethylene an hour and 1,760 pounds an hour of polypropylene. Cincinnati Extrusion said that is more than double the rate of similar-sized, conventional extruders.
The company's U.S. headquarters, Cincinnati Extrusion Inc., is in Erlanger, Ky.
Tel. 859-746-1530, fax 859-371-4534, e-mail [email protected]
Sheet extrusion line available for tests
Because of customer interest at an open house earlier this year at American Maplan Corp. headquarters in McPherson, Kan., the firm is making a sheet extrusion line there available for testing.
At the open house, two Dow Chemical Co. packaging resins were run - Styron 421 high-impact polystyrene and H314-02Z homopolymer polypropylene.
The single-screw, smooth-bore extruder has a 90-millimeter screw diameter. It can pump out sheet at a rate of 1,320 pounds an hour for PP and 1,540 pounds for HIPS.
The line also includes a hydraulic screen changer, melt pump, static mixer, three polish and two cooling rolls and a large-diameter winder.
Tel. 620-241-6843, fax 620-241-0207.
Plastimac SpA touts electric's advantages
Plastimac SpA of Milan, Italy, has developed an electric blow molding machine that, compared with hydraulic machines, uses less energy, runs more quietly with lower maintenance costs, and has higher production speeds with smooth, even motions, according to the company.
The Plastibow PB2E/D can produce bottles as large as 2 liters equipped with double-carriage clamping that slides on horizontal linear guides.
American Jet Stream Inc. of East Brunswick, N.J., presented information about the Plastimac machine during NPE 2006. The press has a 70-millimeter-diameter extruder and a triple head to make high density polyethylene shampoo bottles.
Tel. 732-254-1808, fax 732-254-3509.
PHD's transfer arm fits Sidel machines
PHD Inc.'s Plastic Packaging Components Group introduced the Series BST fixed-head transfer arm, designed to be a direct replacement to fit most Sidel Series1 SB02 through SB040 stretch blow molding machines that require a fixed head.
The head and jaws of the BST transfer arm are made of hardened stainless steel. The 30-degree head has a low-profile design with a rigid construction that reduces jaw vibration, the company said. A common modular head can be converted easily to other jaw openings.
Also new from PHD is the Series BCZ2D heat-set nozzle cylinders, designed as drop-in replacements for nozzle cylinders used in Sidel Series2 heat-set machines. They mount into the same space and bolt patterns.
Both products come standard with lubrication approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in food packaging.
PHD is in Fort Wayne, Ind.
Tel. 260-747-6151.
AVT has automation for handling sheet
Advanced Ventures in Technology Inc. has sold a single-station thermoforming machine to Sub-Zero Freezer Co. of Madison, Wis., which makes high-end refrigerators and wine storage products.
Sub-Zero Freezer will use the equipment, which uses the pressure forming process, to make interior refrigerator door panels.
AVT said the machine's forming area measures 5 feet by 8 feet.
In other news, AVT has introduced automation for handling sheet. The pick-and-place equipment loads and unloads sheet by lifting the sheet from a stack, using vacuum cups, rotating it 90 degrees and placing the sheet on a shuttle conveyor. The sheet is shuttled out of the thermoforming machine and moved back on a reversing conveyor, then the equipment picks the sheet up again, rotates it back 90 degrees and places it on the stack.
Gladwin, Mich.-based AVT said the automation can boost production as much as 30 percent over manual operations.
Tel. 989-246-0445, fax 989-246-0465.
Cumberland control provides full data
Cumberland Engineering Inc. of South Attleboro, Mass., said its size-reduction touch-screen controller allows an operator to track machine maintenance schedules, performance and full data collection that shows the granulator's overall amperage use.
Cumberland said the controller can be integrated easily into upstream or downstream equipment. It automatically monitors multiple feeding conditions from different program settings.
Tel. 508-399-6400, fax 508-399-6653.