Clean, Compatible And Easy To Handle: Hosokawa Alpine With New Granulate Intake Unit For Extruders

Hosokawa Alpine presents a newly developed granulate intake unit for extruders. The innovation impresses with its simple handling, harmonises perfectly with other Alpine system components, and reliably prevents dust deposits. As a result, users benefit from greater process reliability and consistently high product quality.

Simple function with slide valve and metal separator

The granulate intake unit links the dosing unit of a blown film line with the feed throat of the extruder. At Hosokawa Alpine, the granulate intake unit includes three fully integrated slide valves and a metal separator.

A first slide valve can be installed together with a metal separator at the customer’s request. It is located below the dosing unit and empties the metal separator. After the slide has been closed, the remaining granules run into the extruder. The magnetic bar drawer of the metal separator can then be taken out to remove any metal particles. The magnetic bar drawer itself consists of three encapsulated magnetic bars with highly efficient neodymium magnets. The second slide valve is a resin drain to discharge residual granules from the system.

The third slide is located before the extruder throat and can be operated manually or, on option, pneumatically via the ExVis process control from Hosokawa Alpine. When emptying the extruder screw, the slide valve is closed to interrupt the supply to the extruder. The extruder screw is thus emptied rapidly, and any loss of resin is minimised. This saves customers time, energy and material.

Easy handling and top film quality

The granulate intake unit is easy to operate and perfectly matched to the other components of an Alpine blown film line. “This means our customers only have one point of contact: Hosokawa Alpine. They receive the complete service and necessary spare parts directly from us,” explains Bernd Bayer, Director R&D at Hosokawa Alpine. Furthermore, the granulate intake unit makes a significant contribution to the quality of the film bubble. “No additional adapters are required for our new granulate intake unit so that the granules can pass through perfectly. This means that there are no dead areas where dust or angel hair could settle. As a result, there is no contamination of the film bubble,” continues Bayer.

Utilising synergies within the company: new resin dedusting system

To further improve film quality, Hosokawa Alpine is developing a dedicated system for resin dedusting. There is a need as a lot of dust and angel hair is produced during storage and transport of the resin until it finally reaches the extruder. Dust and angel hair may produce specks in the film and impair the optical quality of the film, thus it is a good idea to remove the dust from the granulate before it enters the dosing units of the extruders. Dedusting not only reduces contamination in the extruders, but also significantly improves the film quality. Hosokawa Alpine’s new dust extractor is the result of a co-operation with the other business segment of the Augsburg-based mechanical engineering company: Systems for powder and particle processing. “Benefitting from the know-how of our in-house powder experts, we have developed a product that not only offers high dedusting quality but is also suitable for granulate dedusting in other applications,” concludes Bayer.

www.hosokawa-alpine.com

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Hydraulic Presses From Wickert For The Manufacture Of Safety-Related Components In The Defense Industry

Wickert Maschinenbau considers itself well positioned for the manufacture of safety-related components in the defense industry. For many years, the German family-owned company has been developing and manufacturing complete systems consisting of hydraulic composite presses with automated loading and unloading and efficient temperature control for customers in the defense sector.

Steve Büchner, sales engineer, emphasizes: “We have earned the long-standing trust of customers in the defense sector, who manufacture complex safety-critical components on our high-precision press systems.”

Wide range of applications

The systems can be used to process numerous thermosets and thermoplastics. These include, for example, fiber-reinforced high-performance composite materials such as aramids and high-performance polyethylenes such as PEEK, PTFE, and UHMWPE (ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene). They are often heated together with glass, ceramic, and metal fibers made of aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, boron carbide, aluminum, and armored steel in composite presses and pressed into fiber composite panels.

Customers use Wickert’s press systems to manufacture armor for protecting civilian and military vehicles, ships, and aircraft from gunfire, – including for military and civilian vehicles, aircraft, and ships. The systems are equally suitable for the production of ballistic protection plates for personal protection, such as helmets and shields.

All press systems are manufactured in Germany to customer specifications

Wickert develops and manufactures all hydraulic composite presses according to customer-specific requirements at its headquarters in Landau. They have a modular design and are individually adapted with regard to pressing force, temperature control, and automation. The machines are designed precisely for the desired tools or – in the case of corresponding confidentiality requirements – prepared in a way that allows customers to carry out the adaptation themselves.

Numerous design options

The company offers its customers a wide variety of options when designing press systems. Processing temperatures of up to 500 °C are possible, as are freely selectable press forces of over 100,000 kN, built up within seconds.

On request, heating rates of 55 Kelvin per minute and cooling rates of up to 100 Kelvin per minute can be achieved. All systems are characterized by high temperature homogeneity with a deviation of less than 5 °C across the entire press surface.

The dimensions of the presses and their precision heating plates can also be freely selected. One of the outstanding features is the precision of the systems with plane parallelism of less than 0.1 mm and a maximum side offset of 0.02 mm.

High productivity

Smart design and fast pressure and temperature control save energy and shorten the production cycle. This increases output and enhances flexibility in production scheduling.

On request, the press systems can include automation solutions, including raw material handling, press operation, removal, and post-processing. Planning is carried out by Wickert’s in-house development department, which designs individual concepts for automation and special solutions. This allows systems with fully automated production to be implemented.

In addition, presses and peripheral components can be networked with other plant participants and higher-level process control systems as part of a smart factory setup.

Complete plant from a single source

On request, Wickert can take on the entire project management as a general contractor, from planning to commissioning. The worldwide service includes real-time remote maintenance and on-site support.

www.wickert-presstech.de

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