Extrusion International 4-2016

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26 Extrusion International 4/2016 FILM EXTRUSION
Open House at the Extrusioneers
Reifenhaeuser Blown Film’s presented EVOLUTION Ultra Flat
Reifenhäuser Blown Film hosted an Open House in Troisdorf during the DRUPA trade show
held in Düsseldorf. A multitude of customers from around the world attended the event to
learn about new opportunities in the application of film extrusion technologies.
What made the Reifenhäuser Open House event so ap-
pealing were the lines in operation: Three state-of-the-art
blown film lines could be viewed running in production.
A special highlight was the EVOLUTION Ultra Flat tech-
nology which has become a convincing selling point. Eu-
gen Friedel, Senior Sales Manager at Reifenhäuser Blown
Film comments: “Film flatness imperfections occurring in
the production of packaging films are inherent in blown
film processes. Especially in the conversion of these films
they can cause serious problems. With EVOLUTION Ultra
Flat featuring minimum stretching of the film via heating-
cooling rolls it is possible to produce a web perfectly flat
for subsequent winding and conversion.” The enhanced
efficiency covers the entire value chain. “All steps in the
production of packaging film, such as lamination, print-
ing, re-forming and sealing, clearly benefit from the op-
timized web flatness,” says Eugen Friedel explaining the
advantages of Ultra Flat. Arguments that could convince,
as three lines were sold with Ultra Flat during the Open
House.
Beside the Ultra Flat technology further highlights were
presented by Reifenhäuser Blown Film on their running
blown film lines:
- 11-layer blown film line producing an outer layer from
polyamide:
Here an asymmetric high-barrier structure was so skillfully
chosen that the curling effect of the film was prevented
without using a water bath (critical for hygienic produc-
tion conditions). Curling of the film edges is caused by the
different speeds at which raw materials cool down and
by the individual crystallization points (for example PE vs.
PA, PET). That impedes a smooth conversion of the film.
Excellent film properties needed for conversion, lamina-
tion and printing were also ensured by the EVOLUTION
Ultra Flat haul-off used on this line.
Thanks to minimized stretching via heating-cooling rolls,
a web of perfect flatness was achieved with this technol-
ogy.
- 3-layer line producing FFS bags (Form, Fill & Seal) from
an LLD-PE rich based material structure regarded as diffi-
cult. Operated with a 175mm die, the line easily achieved
a consistent record-breaking output of 450kg per hour.
- 5-layer line designed for high output producing high-
efficiency lamination film - over 800kg/h were achieved
using a 325mm die.
Here as well, the advantages of the EVOLUTION Ultra Flat
technology were demonstrated.
Visitors from around the world informed themselves about new
opportunities in the application of film extrusion technologies at
the Open House held by Reifenhäuser Blown Film during DRUPA