Oberglatt, Switzerland — Maag Group, a Swiss process technology manufacturer, is supplying several automatic strand pelletizing lines to Netherlands-based Royal DSM NV to modernize and expand its materials compounding plant in Evansville, Ind.
Royal DSM, which serves the health, nutrition and sustainable living markets, announced in February that it is "future-proofing" the site to produce the next generation of advanced materials, including bio-based thermoplastics and advanced material solutions for electrification, metal replacement and lightweighting in multiple industries.
Royal DSM says the expansion will help to meet increased regional demand for high-performance materials such as nylons 6, 6/6, 4/10 and 4/6, as well as the firm's PET, polybutylene terephthalate, copolyester and polyphthalamide materials.
"As demand from our customers for sustainable sources of advanced materials grows, so does our need to invest," Jud Gibson, vice president of commercial Americas at DSM Engineering Plastics, said in the release. "The expansion of our North American operations helps to ensure we have the right tools to meet this need today and in the future."
Royal DSM is installing jet stream granulation (JSG) brand systems, popular for pelletizing highly filled compounding products as well as recycling applications, according to a Maag news release.
Maag has been developing jet stream systems for about 20 years for various pelletizing applications, saying in the release that the "specialty of those machines" starts at the die head and that after the pelletizing process is set up manual interaction is not necessary anymore.
The JSG machine has several advantages compared to the normal strand pelletizing system, according to Harald Zang, general sales manager.
"The JSG guarantees a consistent granulate quality throughout, meeting the highest demands. It is mostly used to process high-priced polymers," Zang says in the release. "Due to the high level of automation, strand breaks are immediately fed back into the pelletizer during production. This avoids waste, increases the productivity of the machine and thus generates increased turnover and profit."
Maag Group has 65 years of experience in plastic pelletizing and can set up different features and process parameters of the jet stream systems to handle a variety of material properties and throughput ranges.