PRA March-April 2015 Italian Machinery & Technology

Italian Machinery & Technology

PlastMilan grows: showcases foreign and local exhibitors According to the Italian trade association Assocomaplast, the Italian plastics and rubber machinery shows positive signs, mainly due to exports, even given the fact that Italy is in the throes of an economic downturn. It is against this backdrop that the triennially-held plastics show Plast 2015, will be held in Milan, Italy, from 5-9 May, in conjunction with the inaugural week of Expo 2015. Whether it is the attraction of being able to attend the Milan Expo, the number of exhibitors at PlastMilan is 3.9% higher at 1,200, compared to PlastMilan three years ago.

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n the first nine months of 2014, exports of Italian machinery reached EUR1.89 billion, compared to EUR1.82 billion in the corresponding period in 2013.

Expectations for the current year are marked by optimism. This positive sentiment is reflected in the six pavilions at Plast 2015.

"Beyond the numbers," emphasises Promaplast Managing Director Mario Maggiani, "it is important to note how foreign exhibitors continue to believe in Plast, expanding the same spaces reserved in 2012.

Plast is not only holding its ground, but gaining more, as confirmed by the increase in new exhibitors, both Italian and foreign, who have made the decision, for the first time, to exhibit at the fair."

Compounding/Masterbatch • Following the acquisition of Iride Colors in 2013, compounding solutions provider Mesgo went on to acquire Guzzetti Master and 3A MCOM, thus opening up to new markets for pigments, additives, filled masterbatches and thermoplastic compounds.

Last year, Mesgo Asia was set up in Turkey. With the recent acquisitions, expansion and a new R&D centre, Mesgo says it is able to cater to the elastomers sector, supplying from thermoset to thermoplastics compounds.

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• During the course of the last 40 years, Colmec says it has achieved a leading position within the European market for the manufacture of extrusion lines and compounding solutions for rubber and silicone. It recently opened a new technology centre.

• Maris considers itself a leader in the production of complete extrusion lines, with co-rotating twin-screw extruders and self-cleaning modular screws, suitable for the compounding and granulation of materials.

• German exhibitor Pallmann will be highlighting its PMM 300 PolyGrinder system for the pulverisation of thermoplastics under ambient temperature, without adding cooling agents like liquid nitrogen. The system is suited for processing large volumes up to 650 kg/hour, for masterbatch, compounding and rotomoulding operations. Material is discharged into a cyclone and collected in bags, containers or can be conveyed to the next production step.

Extrusion/Converting/Recycling Machinery • Bandera will show a three-layer blown film co-extrusion line for the production of film for flexible technical packaging. This line is suitable for the extrusion of symmetrical structure film for lamination and flexible packaging. In addition, it will have an open house at its headquarters in Busto Arsizio, where it will be testing a new seven-layer co-extrusion blown film line, mainly designed to process PET/PP and PLA rigid film. Both lines will be running 1.2/1.4 tonnes/hour, with a net web width of 1,500 mm. Thicknesses range from 0.14-1.6 mm.

These lines are pre-equipped with systems capable of processing physical foam PET, as well.

Bandera will show a range of blown film lines

Italian Machinery & Technology • With 50 years of experience, Omipa offers complete extrusion and co-extrusion lines for hollow profiles up to 3,000 mm width and thicknesses from 2-40 mm.

There is also a special five-layer co-extrusion line.

For standard quality sheet production, its lines offer thicknesses from 1-30 mm and widths up to 3,000 mm.

In co-extruded sheet and foil of up to seven layers and more, the lines offer thicknesses from 0.15-10 mm (or more) and widths up to 3,000 mm. It also has lines for foil wound on reels, with thicknesses from 0.1-3 mm and widths up to 3,000 mm; as well as lines for high optical quality sheet and foil with thicknesses from 0.15-30 mm.

• Amut Group will have under its booth the newly acquired Amut Dolci Bielloni, with a shuttle bus service to its facility where it will present two cast stretch film lines, one producing hand and automatic rolls (2,000 mm, seven layers) and the other, jumbos (1,500 mm, five layers). In recycling, a DLB60 de-labeller, with 6,000 kg/hour of PET bottle capacity, will be shown. Installed at the start of a washing line, the dry pre-cleaning system removes the full-body shrink sleeve labels from PET bottles.

In recycling, Amut will showcase the de-labeller

For wood composites, it has developed the BA92 counter-rotating twin-screw extruder with a direct extrusion system (output from 250-600 kg/hour).

Further, Amut will also show its TEAT 7 for r-PVC pipes with a diameter up to 710 mm.

• With 40% of the lines it delivered worldwide last year of the POD (polyolefin dedicated) type, Macchi will show this line. The ability to use all the five extruders, the company says, has resulted in a number of successes, particularly in collation shrink film manufacture, with a Macchi will show an upgraded five-layer line

market volume of over 1 million tonnes, and in the flexible packaging industry. The line will feature new web handling devices and take off units, equipped with special solutions including the use of air-porous roller, built with sintering technology, special release and rubber coatings, necessary for the handling of tacky films.

Macchi is also installing a fourth machining centre at its facility, capable of handling dies of up to 2,500 mm diameter and will enlarge the current three/fivelayer range of IBC heads required for agricultural greenhouse films. To cater to this, Macchi will enlarge its second factory by 6,000 sq m.

• Elba, which has been manufacturing automatic highspeed pouch and bag maker machines since 1956, provides side seal, stand-up and side gusset pouch maker machines, wicket bag maker machines, high barrier shrink film bag machines, retail bag maker machines. Other equipment in its range include pet food pouch maker machines, STEB maker machines, medical/pharmaceutical pouch and bag maker machines.

• Tosh is presenting, in addition to its flexible and high-speed series, the Logica Cartesio multi-colour pad printing centres that are numerically controlled.

With these new machines, Tosh says it is able to impose the pad printing process in applications where it had been excluded due to limitations in mechanical construction, confirming that pad printing is an advantageous technique amongst the various decorating processes.

• Recycling equipment maker Gamma Meccanica will roll out the latest version of its GM50 Compac, the GM65, which can be loaded directly onto the container without the need to disassemble the Compac and extruder due to the integrated design. The line also has a TDA 3.4 pelletiser. The new generation lines offer improved insulation and feeding zones, with enhanced cooling and screws to allow for higher outputs. The electrical control panel is installed on the support base to prevent errors and the need to disconnect the cables for transportation and re-wiring during assembly, hence reducing the installation time.

At the NPE show, Gamma exhibited the GM180 with forced feed function MARCH / APRIL 2015

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Italian Machinery & Technology It will also be presenting the successful G-Moby lines for rPET granules suitable for use in food contact applications, in accordance with the US FDA and EFSA regulations, and in applications that require high viscosity. In October last year, the FDA granted Gamma the NOL (No Objection Letter with number 180), after review and approval by the Fraunhofer Institute that carried out tests.

• Tecnova supplies complete plants for the recycling of a wide range of materials as well as extruders for rubber, plants for rigid and plasticised PVC profiles, mono-screw and twin-screw lines for masterbatch and compounding co-rotating twin-screw extruders.

• Cofit International will display a prototype recycling screenchanger. It also offers the Gorilla Belt screenchanger that can be employed for filtering highly contaminated plastic materials, such as agricultural or building films or post consumer materials. The system involves automatic replacement of clean and fresh filtering screens.

• German maching maker Erema's focus will be on its best selling new Intarema generation of systems featuring the Counter Current technology. The company has Erema already sold 150 systems has sold worldwide, since it was 150 of its Intarema launched in 2013. Visitors will units see live in action: an Intarema since the 1007 TVEplus system with launch in an Erema melt filter SW/RTF 2013 4/134, designed especially for the recycling of heavily printed and metallised production waste, plus the fully automatic edge trim system 605 K with enhanced development for the in-house recycling sector.

Meanwhile, newly founded sister company Pure Loop will also be at the stand with its ISEC shredder-extruder technology. This is used for the repelletising of production waste in a wide variety of forms, such as film, tapes, fibres, nonwovens, fabric, hollow bodies, solid plastic parts and more.

• Pallmann will present its latest PFV Plast-Agglomerator for recycling thermoplastic waste and reintroducing it into the production stream. The waste, precut into 8-10 mm, is plastified by means of frictional heat, pressed through a die and cut at the outer circumference by rotating knives. It then is transported pneumatically to a downstream hot melt granulator.

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Thermoforming • Amut will showcase its latest AMP850W-GP thermoforming machine. Equipped with a 50-cavity mould, it will produce water cups in PP with a diameter of 73.5 mm, weight of 3.2 g and capacity of 240 ml. The output is around 110,000 cups/hour.

Another compact series for in-line thermoforming, AKV-ITF120, is composed of a single-screw EA130 extruder, a die (possible configuration up to 7 layers) and a calender. The EA130 extruder allows for 1,000 mm-width foil, thickness up to 2 mm and capacity of 800-1,200 kg/ hour. The rolls have a diameter of 600 mm.

• Set up in 1973, Comi originally manufactured thermoforming machinery, specifically for the refrigerator sector. Thanks to recent acquisitions and incorporations, it has expanded its portfolio to offer presses for plastics and composites; CNC machining centres; CNC waterjet cutting machines and CNC laser cutting machines.

• Swiss manufacturer WM Wrapping Machinery will present its latest version of the FC780 E IM2 Speedmaster Plus pressure forming machine, with steel rule cutting station and fully automated counting and stacking robot system. The kinetic energy generated during braking movements is converted into electrical energy and regenerated into the power system of the machine, resulting in energy savings. Also to be presented is the 780 x 570 mm FC780 IM2, with forming and cutting in the same station or in a second in-line station.

WM will show its FC 780 E IM2 with steel rule cutting, counting and stacking robot systems

The FC thermoformers are fitted with two upper/ lower infrared ceramic heaters, with temperature adjustment occurring by independent longitudinal rows. An optical reader is also installed to have an automatic closed loop control of the temperature.

The insulated oven structure keeps heat dispersion at a minimum. It also comes with the latest generation software and a cycle self-setting processor, with the touch screen panel fitted on a sliding arm. Remote service assistance is possible with a new hardware. The machine on the stand will be moulding clamp shield containers made of APET material.

Italian Machinery & Technology Auxiliary Equipment • Plastic Systems has expanded to the Indian market its systems for the injection, blow moulding and extrusion machinery markets. The company set up its operations in January this year, leasing a 1,000 sq m facility near Thane in Mumbai. “We have operated an office in India for six years, mainly focusing on sales, service and installations. Now, we have started producing feeding and dosing machines and will soon offer the full range,” said President Gianfranco Cattapan recently.

President of Plastic Systems, Gianfranco Cattapan (far left) with his colleagues and machinery the company produces

Its first facility in Asia was set up in 2006 in Shanghai, China. The Borgoricco-headquartered Plastic Systems followed this by setting up a facility in Brazil in 2012 to cater to the American market needs. With more than 5,000 installations around the world, 250 employees and a turnover of EUR50 million, the 20-year old Plastic Systems considers itself as one of the top suppliers of auxiliary equipment. It was set up in 1994 by Cattapan and two other founding partners to cater to what he says was “pressing demand from the European markets for PET dehumidification systems.” Today, the company’s product range includes storage systems, conveyors, dryers and blenders, suitable for the automotive, electronics, medical, housewares, packaging, construction, recycling and textile sectors. It also makes systems for PET processing.

• Borghi and Boucherie have joined forces to create the Boucherie Borghi Group, to better serve the global brush industry with a complete range of machinery and equipment: Thanks to the partnership with TechnoPlastic and Unimac, specialising in monofilament lines, power lines and brush handles lines, the company says it has expanded its portfolio.

Pipes/Profiles • Sica, supplier of downstream equipment for plastic pipes such as haul-offs, saws, belling machines, packaging machines, automation and ancillary equipment, claims revolutionary solutions like the PVC pipe cut and chamfer, without any production of waste. It also boasts a complete range of models (coilers included) and custom-made machines.

Italian Machinery & Technology • Impianti OMS offers a complete series of high and low pressure metering machines for the PU industry; continuous and discontinuous production lines for sandwich panels, complete plants for the automotive and refrigeration applications as well elastomer and gasket plants and plants for the continuous or discontinuous production of rigid and flexible blocks.

Profile Dies’s dripper technology

In the last two years, 20 year-old company Profile Dies has developed automated extrusion lines for the production of drip irrigation pipes with flat drippers, which reach a maximum speed of 150 m/ minute and can insert up to 800 drippers/minute; and lines for the production of round drip irrigation pipes with a speed between 80-100 m/minute and inserting capacity up to 400 drippers/minute, to produce 16-20 mm diameter pipes. It also has a new extrusion line for the production of drip-tape, which is said to be extremely cheap and suitable for both crops in open fields and gardens. It offers a maximum speed of up to 200 m/minute; distance between holes of 10-15 cm and minimum wall thickness of 5-6 mm.

Rotomoulding/PU Machinery • Polivinil Rotomachinery says it has installed more than 1,000 systems worldwide, through its 40 years’ experience in rotomoulding. Its product range includes rotomoulding machines, starting from simple and small single-arm 900 mm-swing type to the larger turret and/or independent multiple-arm machines with up to 7,500 mm-swing. Its emphasis is on reducing dimensions such as reducing the machine height, cooking chamber area and conveyor.

It also focuses on the reduction of the energy consumption with a more efficient air circulation in the oven, better thermic insulation from new panels in the cooking walls and lower electric absorption by the new motors used.

Injection Moulding/Preform Machinery/Tooling • Germany-based Arburg will exhibit the Freeformer for the first time in Italy, demonstrating how oneoff parts and small, multiple-variant batches can be produced from standard granules without the use of a mould in an additive manufacturing process, based on 3D CAD data. It will combine standard ABS material with a special support material to produce a key fob featuring a ball joint. The supporting structures will be removed later in a water bath.

Arburg will show the production of key fobs with an articulated joint (orange part) on its Freeformer. It uses a second discharge unit to construct supporting structures that can be removed at a later stage

Polivinil's rotational moulding machinery

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In packaging, Arburg will show a hybrid Allrounder 720H with a 72-cavity mould from z-moulds producing PCO-1881 closures for carbonated soft drinks (CSD) in a 3.5-second cycle time. Material will be fed by a Motan system, while downstream system comprises a closure cooling unit made by Nova Frigo and an optical quality control system from Intravis. An electric Allrounder 520A will demonstrate a thin-wall application, in a two-cavity mould from DZ Stampi to produce 5.3 g-lids in a 2-second cycle time.

Meanwhile, the production of ballpoint pen caps from two components will be demonstrated by a hydraulic Allrounder 520S and an 8+8-cavity mould from Fila. The main body is produced from PP in a 20 second cycle time, after which it is overmoulded with soft TPE-S. Medical moulding will be shown on an electric Allrounder 520E, while an electric Allrounder 470E will be configured for processing liquid silicone (LSR). iPhone covers weighing 21 g will be produced in a 20-second cycle time, using a mould from Prover and LSR dosing system from 2 KM. Handling is performed by a Multilift Select robotic system with a load weight of 6 kg.

Italian Machinery & Technology • Macam, which represents German-Japanese machine maker Sumitomo (SHI) Demag, will exhibit an all-electric IntElect 100 producing wall plugs using a 32-cavity mould. This, it says, is challenging because it requires an even filling of 32 capacities without creating burrs. This is where the company’s activeFlowBalance module will be used to demonstrate how an active or inactive module affects the quality of the moulded parts in the individual cavities. The parts will be removed by a linear robot from Yushin while the SAS Automation gripper will place the dowel on a conveyor belt. The quality of the moulded parts will be monitored by a Ushio Lighting camera system.

Sumitomo (SHI) Demag will show the production of wall plugs

• Producing centre consoles in PC/ABS at its stand, Austrian firm Engel will be using a Duo 2550/550 machine integrated with a Viper robot to combine two technologies: Foammelt, the MuCell foam process developed by Trexel of the US, and Variomelt, a variothermal process by Roctool from France. In cooperation with its customer Wegaplas in Italy, Engel has also developed a production process for little tree curios, also using variothermal.

Here, Swiss company HB-Therm is the partner for heating and cooling. The PC/ABS trees can be used as doorstoppers, bookends, or smartphone holders, and were designed by Francesca Acciardi, who has been awarded a prize from the ISIA Design Institute in Faenza, Italy.

• Germany-based KraussMaffei will showcase the GX 650-8100 producing a stackable PP crate with integrated handles and a shot weight of 500 g in a cycle time of 8 seconds. The machine contains, as a standard feature, a chute which is also suitable for wide conveyors. The finished components can therefore be demoulded with or without automation.

The height of the machine was increased by 150 mm so that large free-falling parts can also be transported.

It will also show the new APC (adaptive process control) machine function that can be used to compensate for fluctuations in the manufacturing process. The patented system adjusts the changeover point and the holding pressure profile in each cycle to the current melt viscosity and current flow resistance in the mould.

• Sacmi will exhibit the new IPS (Injection Preform System) 400 preform press, a new addition to the IPS 220, which has been on the market for three years. It has already sold a 400 unit to Italian converter Gardaplast. Equipped with a 96-cavity mould, it is able to make 11-g preforms in a cycle time of 6.2 seconds, says the Italian firm. New features are the preform unloading solution: preforms are dropped by the gripper plate directly into the containers, eliminating the need for belts and conveyors. Two linear motors move the take out plate, allowing for energy reduction, thanks to the KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System). Further, in the plasticising unit, where the system that transfers the PET between extruder, shooting pot and mould, is managed by a first-in-first-out circuit that prevents the plastic from staying too long in the circuit, which could affect the properties of the PET. • Specialising in manufacturing hot runner systems, Thermoplay’s range includes complete hot half’s as well as temperature and sequential control units, flow analysis, tailor-made projects, simultaneous injection of different colours and materials and sequential injection with pneumatic or hydraulic valves. Temperature and sequential controllers are also said to guarantee a perfect control of the hot runner systems and the moulding process.

Rubber Machinery/Materials • Set up in 1992, Delia specialises in the production of manipulators and robots for machinery for moulding of rubber items. Its highlight is machinery that inserts metals in rubber for the automotive, household appliances (white industry), medical and sports sectors. A manipulator for metal inserts (screw) loading has the function to load screws onto trays to be used in a second step for loading the screws onto the moulds for the production of metal-rubber pieces.

Delia's robotised island that trims and fits bellows moulded by a rubber injection press equipped with a Delia multi-nozzle thermoregulated block injection mould

• From its base in Northern Italy Deltagran Europe, a supplier of rubber material, produces masterbatches of rubber chemicals and additives.

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