Trends & Markets
The best of two worlds
| Petra Rehmet
New Plastinum foaming process live at Fakuma
The Plastinum Perfoamer solution combines the benefits of chemical and physical foaming processes during injection molding. This enables substantial material and weight savings. The solution was developed by the Kunststoff-Institut Lüdenscheid and Linde AG and will be demonstrated live at Fakuma on a fully hydraulic CX 50-380 from KraussMaffei.
In the newly developed process, a dried granulate is enriched with CO2 in a pressure vessel. The gas permeates into the granulate. Afterwards, the enriched granulate is fed into the injection molding machine in a conventional way, meaning manually or via a vacuum conveyor. The new method combines the easy handling of chemical foaming processes with the positive effects of physical foaming. This takes place fully automatically via a self-sufficient peripheral solution that consists of dryer and autoclave. The system's handling is similar to a material dryer. It can likewise operate multiple machines at the same time and, in doing so, manufacture small and large batches in a cost-effective manner.
High dimensional stability guaranteed
To the point, like all chemical and physical foaming processes, the process improves product quality by guaranteeing high dimensional stability of the injection molded parts. Warpage and sink marks are minimized. In particular, long-fiber-reinforced thermoplastics (LFT granulates) can be processed in a gentle manner—similar to that used for compact injection molding—because a standard screw can be used. This provides good foaming results and substantial savings in terms of material, weight and energy savings. Not least, Plastinum enables cost savings. Machines can be used both for foaming and for compact injection molding. Retrofitting existing systems is possible without any problems.
Benefits Plastinum
- Combination of positive features of chemical and physical foaming processes
- High dimensional stability of injection molded parts
- Substantial savings in terms of material, weight and costs
- Easy retrofitting
Visitors to the Fakuma trade show can catch a glimpse of the new system at the Kunststoff-Institut Lüdendscheid’s booth in a live demonstration at a CX 50-380. The CX series from KraussMaffei provides the optimal technological basis for the project because it has an exceptional plasticizing and injection unit for uniform homogenization of the charged melt. The shut-off nozzle in combination with the existing PV control provides great process reliability.
Kunststoff Institut Lüdenscheid/KraussMaffei at the Fakuma trade show, October 16 - 20, 2018, Hall A5 – Stand 5312
Contact
andreas.handschke@kraussmaffei.com
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