Extrusion International 3-2018

26 Extrusion International 3/2018 INDUSTRY NEWS Worlds Largest Mosaic made of ETFE Film Theworld’s largest façademadeof single layer ETFEfilm is gleam- ing in the club colors of the Mexican first division club, FC Puebla. The freshly renovated traditional stadiumCuauhtémoc in theMexi- can highlands rises to a height of around 40 meters. The extrava- gant façade made of more than 30,000 square meters of film was built in a very sophisticated design. The film was extruded from the high-performance material 3MDyneon Fluoroplastic ETFE. The lightweight film makes it possible to build the stadium with 1,500 tons of steel less than for a comparable glass façade. The façade seems extremely lightweight in its curved shaped and incorporates pre-Columbian design elements with its mosaic char- acter. It consists of 124 vertical segments, about 40meters inheight. A total of 5,952 ETFE film sections in the three shades were welded to one another for the segments. In the daytime the club colors of blue and white as well as the transparent sections continue to be visible. By night the film sections are illuminated by in various colors by LED lights. Especially important in the hot and humid climate: In the produc- tion of films made of 3MDyneon ETFE no plasticizers are required, which evaporate over time and thus could promote algae or fungal growth. ETFE films are so smooth that rain showers are sufficient to clean the façade to the greatest possible extent. They are so resis- tant toother chemicals that they are also able towithstand environ- mental influences such as exhaust emissions for decades. Originally, parts of the façade of the stadium in Puebla were made of glass panels in various colors. Dünn Lightweight Architecture chose to design the complete façade with ETFE film instead. One significant advantage: The weight per unit area of ETFE is around 95 percent lower than that of glass. As a result, stress analysts were able to build the support structure in amuch lighter way. Instead of the 2,500 tons of steel required for a glass construction, 1,000 tons are sufficient for the ETFE façade, a savings of 60 percent. Nowofol Kunststoffprodukte GmbH & Co. KG extruded the films from high-performance material 3M Dyneon ETFE. The company manufactured the NOWOFLON ET 6235Z film for the project in Mexico in three shades and with a thickness of 200 micrometers. The 160 cm wide films were welded in such a way that a mosaic with 80-centimetre-high fields results in the panels up to six meters wide. Nowofol produces ETFE films in nearly all RAL shades and in an infrared absorbing design, in order to minimize the solar heat gain. Thefilms complywithfire classification B1 (in accordancewith DIN 4102), an important criterion for stadiums. Shortly after the remodelling, the naming rights for the stadium were sold to the financial groupMultiva for 30 years. There is a very simple reasonwhy therewas nopublic outcry: Itwas not the last Az- tec ruler Cuauhtémoc that the stadiumwas named after, but rather a brewery that financed the majority of the original construction 50 years earlier. In 2011 this brewery was bought up by an interna- tional group. 3M, Dyneon GmbH www.3M.com, www.dyneon.eu Largest RecyclingMachine installed Green Line Polymers, an Advanced Drainage Systems (“ADS”) recycling subsidiary, has recently installed the largest NGR recycling machine ever built capable of recyclingwell over 4,000 lbs. per hour of plastics scrapmaterials in a variety of forms. Their recent installation will recycle high volumes of post-industrial PE scrap materials. This recycled product will then be a raw mate- rial building block for the next generation of ADS corrugated pip- ing products and water management solutions (WMS). Green Line Polymers is one of the largest recyclers of polymer products inNorth America. ADS is a leading manufacturer of high performance thermoplastic corrugated pipe and ancillary products, providing a comprehensive suite of water management products and superior drainage solu- tions for use in the construction and infrastructure marketplace. Their innovative pipes, fittings, basins and other products are utilized across a broad range of end markets and applications, in- cluding non-residential, residential, agriculture and infrastructure applications. Founded in 1966, ADS operates a global network of approximately 60 manufacturing plants and over 30 distribution centers. Today, more than 8.5 billion feet of ADS pipe are in service around the world. NGR, based in Austria, just delivered their 1000th plastics recycling line. Key benefits for their customers is the “One-Step Technology” which utilizes a shredder-feeder-extruder combination. This con- figuration ensures the highest energy efficiency while minimizing equipment footprint and reducing material handling steps. NGR operates their Technical Center near Atlanta, GA along with a full- scale recycling line available for customer testing and trials. All sales, technical service, spare parts, and training functions for their North America customers are handled from this facility. Next Generation Recyclingmaschinen GmbH (NGR) www.ngr.at Green Line Polymers Inc. www.greenlinepolymers.com