Extrusion International 6-2024-USA

42 Extrusion International 6/2024 PIPE EXTRUSION Minimize Energy and Raw Material Costs in PO Pipe Production “The investment costs for complete pipe extrusion lines quickly pay off thanks to us,” Andreas Türk, Director Sales Infrastructure at battenfeld-cincinnati GmbH, Bad Oeynhausen, is certain. After all, the components of a complete system are not only perfectly matched to each other but are also technically designed to save both energy and raw material costs compared to similar systems. Thanks to minimized production costs, the investment costs are amortized after just three to four years. This means that the pipe manufacturer saves money during the entire service life of a pipe line of around 15 years or more and benefits from the high end product quality and a reduced CO2 footprint. T he ex- truder is not only one of the most important core components in every pipe line, but also the largest energy con- sumer, accounting for up to 80% of total energy consumption in some cases. “Thanks to the process en- gineering design of the new solEX NG single-screw se- ries, we have managed to reduce energy consumption by around 15% compared to previous generations,” emphasizes Andreas Türk. The main reason for this im- provement is the internally grooved barrel, which has a low axial pressure profile in combination with the matching screw geometry. This leads to both reduced energy consumption and less machine wear. At the same time, the new processing unit ensures a very gen- tle and homogeneous melting performance at around 10 °C lower temperatures. The second core component of every pipe line is also in- dispensable: the helix dies frombattenfeld-cincinnati not only score points with the unique and patented process engineering combination of screen basket distributor and spiral mandrel, but due to their design alsowith 10% lower energy costs for the heating capacity compared to conventional pipe heads. In addition, the screen bas- ket homogenizes the melt thermally and mechanically, which leads to a further improvement in product quality. The third important factor influencing the overall energy consumption of a pipe line is the cooling and therefore the downstream units, consisting of vacuum tanks and spray baths. The green line concept works with frequen- cy-controlled pumps and a very efficient water supply, both of which help to reduce energy costs. With an energy-efficient complete system set- up consisting of solEX NG, helix die and green line downstream equipment, around EUR 85,000 in en- ergy costs can be saved per year, calculated with 7,000h production p.a. and 12 Eurocent per kWh, when producing a 250 mm PO pipe with SDR 11 and an output of 1,000 kg/h. With a conventional energy mix, this corresponds to a CO 2 equivalent of 315,000 kg. As with the energy costs of the extruders, material consumption is the main factor influencing production costs: around 85% of production costs are attributable to the raw material used. “For ecological and economic reasons, we have to make sure that little scrap is pro- duced, and that the production of good products is carried out within the narrowest tolerances,” says An- dreas Türk, explaining that the line components from battenfeld-cincinnati are designed precisely for this purpose. Thanks to the combination of the screen bas- ket distributor and the spiral mandrel of the helix pipe heads, the melt is distributed more precisely, which is particularly evident with thicker wall thicknesses. Due to the improved melt quality, the tolerance ranges of the wall thicknesses in the pipe can be significantly reduced. In addition to the gravimetric dosing system, which en- sures exact quantity dosing, and the extruder, which works with a minimum throughput fluctuation, the in - line wall thickness control and the centering aid inside the die head are also responsible for exact wall thick- ness distributions and low tolerances in the pipe lines. Complete system to produce PO pipes with the solEX extruder, the helix II tooling and the downstream systems vacStream, coolStream, pullStream and cutStream