Extrusion International 2-2018

27 Extrusion International 2/2018 dispersive mixing with low screw wear, which is an impor- tant attribute when compounding abrasive materials. The TKD elements can achieve either higher mixing capability or higher conveying capability, depending on the direction of their rotation. Asmixing can take place at around 10% lower temperature than with conventional mixing elements and with less demand on the drivemotor, there is corresponding 10% lower energy consumption with TKD elements. Side feeding is usually applied to introduce fillers such as talc or carbon black or reinforcement fibers into the polymer melt in extruder mixing sections. It is here that JSW offers a SFD (Side Feed Deaerator) in its DGC (De-Gassing Cylinder) technology to exhaust volatile substances, air and moisture via a vacuum pump, so that throughput increases due to an improvement of conveying efficiency by densifying bulky powder material such as Talc, CaCO3, fine polymer powder and so on. Theeffectivenessof theSFDfittedonJSWextrudershasbeen demonstrated in trials showing 57% throughput increase when compounding 30-wt% talc filled elastomer-modified PP, 31% increase with PPO/PS blend (80wt%/20wt%) and 58% increase with 30% carbon black filled PBT. JSWalso offers the software packages for simulation of pro- cess conditions, screw design, as well as for screw element management. Improvements made to the JSW 64-bit EXANET control sys- tem’s 15-inch color LCD control panel on both model ver- sions have resulted in more comfortable and faster extruder operation, through for example better visibility of the touch- screen display and its icons, which enables easier triggering of specific functions. Aside from the extruder, the control system can integrate optional auxiliary equipment such as gravimetric feeders, side feeders, pelletizers. Customers can however choose to use a PLC (programmable logical control) system of their own choice, instead of the JSW EXANET sys- tem. Other detailed improvements to the control panel include enhanced I/O (input/output) capability for greater flexibility and easier integration of the extruder with the control sys- tem, as well as upgrading of the EXANET system’s external interface by inclusion of operational conditions data man- agement via USB connection. This is in an addition to the ex- isting Ethernet LAN (local area network) port, with its NET 100 data logging system allowing simultaneous monitoring of up to 100 extruders. Monitoring can take place via a web browser on desktop PCs, from which processing conditions can be adjusted via thenetwork. Data canbedirectly printed, or exportedas CSV format files for opening with standard office spreadsheet software, typically involving one Gigabyte of data for 300 days operation. Screen shots can also be made of the con- trol panel display screen and exported as PNG format images that can be read with standard image programs. JSWalso offers complete turnkey compounding plants, com- plete vacuum and gear pumps, various types of barrels, bar- rel cooling systems, strand cooling baths, pelletizers, screen changers, silos, packing and palletizing equipment. Japan Steel Works Europe GmbH (JSW) Bonner Str. 243, 40589 Düsseldorf, Germany www.jsw.de, www.jsw.de/technical-info TEX34 α III extruder specifications ACHEMA 2018 exhibition, June 11-15 in Frankfurt/Main, Germany, Compounding World Expo 2018, June 27-28 in Essen, Germany