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| The EMS facility in Domat/Ems, Switzerland. © EMS CHEMIE AG |
At the forefront for automotive pipe ems chemie
Stephan Wick, Manager Process Technology at the EMS development center states, "Almost all car manufacturers worldwide use our products for applications in the areas of fuel, truck air brakes, cooling, AdBlue® and other fluid systems." The polyamides for pipe extrusion include various long-chain polymers such as PA12, PA612, PA610, and many specialties like unique extrudable polyphthalamides (PPA) and PA6-based grades. EMS-GRIVORY products are used in many areas besides automotive, such as industrial hydraulics, pneumatics and cable protection.
EMS offers comprehensive development services for OEMs and tier suppliers in-house. An essential part of this service package is the development and production of prototypes for single- and multi-layer tubes as well as process optimization.
Development center in-house
Mr. Wick relates the capabilities at EMS' development center. "Our 5-layer extrusion group from Maillefer allows us to use the same machine setup and parameters as do many of our customers around the globe. The quality of the products manufactured on the new equipment is appreciated by them. We were able to significantly reduce the amount of purging material when changing products and hence save time, such as when changing tools or converting the extruder head from a 5-layer to a 3-layer configuration."
Driven to change
In the automotive industry, there is a continuing drive toward more economical solutions with higher performances and longevity. These factors push for future applications that use new materials. Equipment modifications or other processing parameters are sometimes necessary, adds Mr. Wick. "We are particularly interested in a lively exchange of information on new developments, such as screw or extrusion head designs. We test many future innovations here, but also want to test them directly at Maillefer."
An incontestable advantage
Indeed, EMS is a welcome participant during tests at Maillefer's facilities when, for example, running proving line deliveries with common customers. To call upon on known processing conditions becomes an incontestable advantage when co-extruding high performance polyamides.
