Extrusion International 6-2023

32 Extrusion International 6/2023 FAKUMA 2023 Laboratory Extruder Relaunched At this year’s Fakuma KraussMaffei Extrusion exhib- ited the newly designed ZE 28 BluePower laboratory extruder. In addition to fast availability and a highly at- tractive price, this extruder is characterized by improved ease of operation and enhanced performance. The new high-performance laboratory-scale extrud- er convinces by a perfect combination of free volume (OD/ID=1.65) and high torque density of 13.6 Nm/cm³. Depending on the specific process requirements, the processing section can be configured within a length range of 32 to 64 D and equippedwith up to three side feeders. Just like the other extruders in this series, the ZE 28 BluePower is available in three material variants, in or- der to offer the wear resistance and corrosion protection required for customer-specific applications. The laboratory extruder is designed to implement bespoke process solutions thanks to a wide variety of configuration options. These include processing section elements in high-temperature design with a thermal re- sistance of up to 420°C. In addition, the automatic screw removal towards the drive – or "UltraGlide” feature for short – further expands the range of applications for this machine. Since October 2022, the standard version of the ZE BluePower extruder has been equipped with the newly developed “pioneer processControl” (ppC) featuring wizards (assistants) for enhanced production reliability. These wizards provide the operator with step-by-step instructions for certain procedures such as starting the production line or shutting it down. Common up- and downstream systems can be integrated into the new control system. “After intensive discussions with our customers, we have responded to current market requirements and improved our twin-screw extruder accordingly”, says the Michael Tieben, Product Manager for the ZE Blue- Power series. “In the future, we will offer our extruder with a cost advantage as compared to our competitors and an attractive delivery time.” High energy efficiency, excellent temperature control within the processing section, improved surface clean- ing, enhanced power electronics protection and an optimized strand extrusion die are the key features of the relaunched ZE 28 BluePower design. The process- ing sections including the screw configurations are still customized and all process-engineering results can be scaled up without any problems to the entire BluePower extruder range from size ZE 42 up to the ZE 186. KraussMaffei Extrusion GmbH www.kraussmaffei.com New paths for laboratory extruder customers: The design study shows the new low-cost standard version of the ZE 28 BluePower extruder Digitally Controlled Grinders for Energy-saving Plastics Recycling At Fakuma, Hellweg Maschinenbau presented a se- lection of its pioneering, digitally controlled grinders for efficient, energy-saving plastics recycling at their booth. These include the MDSi 340/150 Smart Control machine- side grinder with fill level monitoring, the MDSi 600/300 Smart Control Plus central grinder and the MDSGi 1500/600 as a representative of a newly developed se- ries of wet grinders with forced feed which have par- ticularly low power consumption. The MDSi 340/150 Smart Control machine-side grind- er is the highest power model of the series with drive powers of 1.5 kW to 4 kW for grinding capacities of 10 kg/h to 80 kg/h. Its primary application is to save raw materials by enabling the recirculation of even the bulkiest sprue stars, spiders or ladders directly beside one or more injection molding machines. Material can be fed in by chute, feed hopper or conveyor belt, and discharged by suction. A film edge strip feeder is avail - able as an option. Hellweg’s 300 series central grinders combine a com- pact design with high performance. Thanks to the stur- dy machine housing and the high moment of inertia of the massive, solid rotor they enable powerful grind- ing of thick-walled moldings, sheets, sprue cakes, pipes and profiles and, when using the special BR rotor, even single-stage shredding of solid lumps from production start-ups. The MDSi 600/300 Smart Control Plus version on display at Fakuma features power consumption analy- sis to optimize economy and automated lubrication with Bluetooth monitoring to minimize maintenance effort. Hellweg presented the new MDSGi 1500/600 wet grinder featuring a forced feed system for film recycling to visitors as a 3D printed model due to its considerable weight of around 25 metric tons. In addition to its rug- ged, durable design typical of this manufacturer, it offers an unprecedentedly good ratio of throughput to energy consumption, enabling very low operating costs. Its cut- ting geometry is also outstanding, producing flakes of