Extrusion International 5-2019

22 Extrusion International 5/2019 INDUSTRY NEWS Autoflex™ Die Reduced Gauge Variation and Downtime Asia Poly Films Industries, a versatile producer of biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) films for packaging, has sub- stantially reduced downtime and increased throughput on a lamination-grade film line by switching to a brand-new EDI® Autoflex™ die from Nordson Corporation. Since it began producing BOPP film in 2017, Asia Poly Films frequently encountered gauge bands and film sagging with the previous die, making it impossible to achieve the degree of flatness required by customers. It was necessary to clean the die every two or three months – a process that meant 48 to 60 hours of production downtime for each cleaning. The die also exhibited gauge variation that could be held within acceptable limits only if the line speed were limited to no more than 2,800 kg/hr. Since installing the EDI die in February 2019, Asia Poly Films has been running the film line continuously at 3,500 kg/hr with gauge variation maintained “well within acceptable levels,” according to Dipesh Patel, director. “In addition, while our old die needed about two hours after line startup to stabilize and start producing film with an acceptable level of gauge variation, the new EDI die stabilizes within only 15 or 20 minutes.” Using the new EDI die with the same ex- truder, controls, and polymer recipe as in the past, Asia Poly Films has produced film with lower haze and better gloss, Patel said. The EDI die is an Autoflex VI-R triple-manifold unit. Like the die previously used by Asia Poly Films, the Autoflex die is an automatic one, using data from a computerized downstream gauging system to adjust the transverse thickness profile by making changes to the flexible upper lip of the die. “The Autoflex system responds more rapidly to gauge varia- tions than other automatic dies,” said Mrunal Sanghvi, gen- Nordson Polymer Processing Systems www.nordsonpolymerprocessing.com Asia Poly Films Industries www.asiapolyfilms.com eral sales manager in India for Nordson’s Polymer Processing Systems business. “In addition, Nordson custom-designed the flow channel, or manifold, inside the die to optimize the flow of the specific polymers used by Asia Poly Films. These are two reasons why the EDI die has enabled Asia Poly Films to achieve saleable product in a shorter time after startup, hold to tighter tolerances during the production run, and increase throughput while maintaining product uniformity and quality.” Asia Poly Films Industries produces BOPP flexible packaging films for tape and textile, lamination, heat sealable, and re- lease-film applications. EDI ® Autoflex™ Die at Asia Poly Films Additive Masterbatch Makes Black Plastic Packaging ‘Visible’ to Sorting Systems New Clariant CESA ® -IR additive masterbatches are avail- able to make dark-colored plastics visible to the near-infra- red (NIR) sensors used in automated polymer sorting sys- tems. While many companies use black packaging to brand their prestige products, the problems it poses in recycling sys- tems has led to calls for black to be phased out of the palette. The new masterbatches help to resolve that issue and allows increased recycling rates in Europe and elsewhere. The new product range is part of a „Design for Recycling“ program at Clariant. Recognizing that recycling is the foun- dation of a Circular Economy, Clariant Masterbatches and its Packaging Market group, is mobilizing substantive resources across the packaging value chain to ensure that an ever- higher percentage of plastic packaging is recycled. In most automatic sortation systems, infrared light is beamed onto packaging materials and, because different polymers reflect that light differently, NIR sensors can discriminate between high-density polyethylene, low-density polyethyl- ene, polypropylene, polyester and various other commonly used polymers in today’s packaging. Unfortunately, the car- bon black pigments typically used to make black plastics ab- sorb all or most of the NIR light shone at them. As a result, the sorting sensors cannot even “see” the black packaging, much less sort one polymer from another.