TECHNOLOGY NEWS:
High-performance compounding extruder
Coperion Buss AG, Switzerland, a leading global supplier of reliable and cost-efficient compounding technology for the plastic and chemical industry, recently organised a two-day in-house trade show that focused on operating experience with the Buss kneader quantec, a high-performance compounding extruder that has now been optimised specifically for shear-sensitive plastics such as PVC. Equipped with a new and further improved discharge screw, it is fitted on a common base-frame with the pelletising system in one ready-for-use unit. Numerous visitors attending the in-house event witnessed a series of pilot-scale trials with a quantec system featuring a 50mm screw Ø and an L/D ratio of 10. The demonstration showcased that:
- The announced increase in throughput capacity from 200 to 300% can be achieved in practical operation for both plasticised and rigid PVC, even with demanding recipes, at unchanged compounding quality;
- The new compounding unit permits very fast formulation changes: a switch from rigid to plasticised PVC, without any change in the screw configuration, took only 15 minutes to complete and yielded less than 1kg of changeover product.
The application benefits and operation of the quantec system were detailed by Coperion Buss experts in a series of lectures and papers. One key prerequisite for the throughput increase was the change from the predecessor MKS model’s three-flight design to a four-flight geometry in the quantec unit. The resulting overlap of the kneading flights on the screw improves conveying capacity without interfering with the system’s mixing and homogenising performance. Furthermore, the screw diameter in the feed zone is now 20% greater than in the process zone, eliminating the need for the previously used crammer feeder. The quantec series comprises five machine sizes with 50 to 140mm screw Ø, representing a throughput range from 200 to 8,000kg per hour in PVC compounding.
Company: |
Coperion Buss AG |
Country: |
Switzerland |
Fax: |
+41 0711 8973999 |
Email: |
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Website: |