Extrusion International 5-2020

24 Extrusion International 5/2020 EXTRUSION TECHNOLOGIES – CASE STUDY High-Speed Production Line for “Danish Trays” “We always keep a step ahead of the market. We don’t do things by halves,” is the motto of Jacob Sörensen, Managing Partner of the Danish company Staal og Plast A/S. A glance into the production halls in Ringe impressively underscores his statement. Here stands the world’s largest thermoforming line with a footprint of 20 square meters, which transforms about 3 mm thick, extruded, HI-semi-finished PS sheet into what is known as ebb & flow trays for greenhouseshothouses. To produce the up to 8 m long and 2.5 mwide semi-finished boards, battenfeld-cincinnati Germany, Bad Oeynhausen, installed an ultra-modern sheet extrusion line with throughput rates of up to 3,000 kg/h just under a year and a half ago Highly modern 3-layer flat film sheet In addition to the risingworld popula- tion and the resulting added demand for flowers, shrub and vegetable seedlings for professional and ama- teur gardeners, fresh herb pots for modern kitchens and the increasing cultivation of cannabis are all contrib- utingtotheboominggreenhousehot- house construction. The Danish com- pany Staal og Plast supplies precisely this niche market with made-to-mea- sure high-impact polystyrene (HIPS) trays. The company, founded in 1984 by the father of today’s Managing Partner, concentrated right from the beginning on greenhousehothouse products, which during the first years included steel profiles as well as plas- with a thermoforming line to start with. “Especially in North America, there is an enormous demand for our so-called ‘Danish trays’. The reason is the increasing cultivation of cannabis, which is not only grown for medical purposes, but due to its legalization in several federal states also more and more in demand for leisure ap- plications”, explains Jacob Sörensen, suggesting that he may further ex- pand his overseas facility in the near future and install an extrusion line there, too. Until that time, the com- pany will continue to transport its Danish trays to the United States to have them thermoformed locally. “This is the only way we can guaran- tic trays, as the company’s name sug- gests. “Today, we process exclusively plastics, since we are convinced that this is our core competence”, explains Jacob Sörensen. “We are concentrat- ing on what we can do best, which means on just one product.” Obvi- ously a concept which makes sense, for the relatively small company with just 15 employees makes 60 to 70% of all sheet products required for greenhouseshothouses worldwide. And the market leader continues to grow. This is why it increased its pro- duction capacity at the Danish facil- ity fourfold with the installation of the high-speed line and established a subsidiary in Chicago/USA, equipped