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]