K2016 MACHINERY REVIEW W&H’s Turboclean launched; cost savings for material changeovers During the K2016 show, at scheduled times of the day, Germany-based extrusion machinery maker Windmöller & Hölscher (W&H) was running and changing two five-layer POD (polyolefin-dedicated) films on a Varex II blown film line. The live show, coupled with an audiovisual display, in a fanfare of lights and sound, put to launch its latest Turboclean resin changeover system. The entire concept served as an example of the company’s theme of “Packaging 4.0 – intelligent, integrated, intuitive”. Martin Backmann, R&D Manager, said, “The Varex II is an intelligent machine because the Turboclean can manage a resin change on its own and it is done in a matter of minutes, compared to the 40 minutes usually taken, because machine operators don’t have to clean each equipment component manually and reconnect the equipment again.” W&H’s Varex II line, which was introduced at K2013, was showcasing the company’s Turboclean. Shown here is the first material in blue
Backmann said that the new system is in line with two distinct mega-trends the company has noticed: increasing demand for quality and cost-effective production. “We did a customer survey to find out what is lacking in productivity. We found out that 9% of downtime happens as a result of material changeovers. This works out to a huge amount on a yearly basis. Hence, we concluded that customers require a system that could allow for a short time to change the material.” Though Turboclean is just a huge white box with hoses, and all an operator did at the show was to pull out hoses from one connection to link to another connection to change the material, there is more to Turboclean than meets the eye. It cleans all the system components simultaneously rather than one by one. When a changeover is required, it stops the material from being fed, draining it at a high speed into bins under the gravimetric hoppers. Thus, it ensures that virgin materials are not mixed with the purged ones. Pressurised air is then blown through the system to remove residual pellets and new material introduced into the blown film line. During the live demonstration at the show, the machine was producing a blue food packaging film using ExxonMobil’s Exceed XP polymer and it would then
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The first material is purged and another added (red film), within a matter of minutes
change to a red-colour collation shrink film, produced using ExxonMobil’s Enable 4002 polymer. All this would be done in 12 minutes, shaving 28 minutes off the entire changeover time. “We are keeping close to our theme of intelligent, integrated, intuitive. By integrating all processes of the machine and the intuitive touch screen user panel, resin changes can be completed in just a few minutes and uptime is increased by 6%. This is possible thanks to the combination of an intelligent algorithm with the automatic cleaning of gravimetric and vacuum conveyers,” said Backmann. Meanwhile, materials firm ExxonMobil was collaborating with W&H to demonstrate how the combination of its new Exceed XP polymers and machine technology intelligence can enable five-layer film solutions. “The Exceed XP exhibits extreme toughness and excellent seal performance, helping producers and brand owners protect and preserve food longer while the Enable 4002 offers high holding force and high transverse direction (TD) shrink for tight bundling to keep products secure,” said Olivier Lorge, Global Performance PE Marketing Manager at ExxonMobil. He also said these new performance polymers allow for a step-up performance with cost advantages. “We are working with machinery makers to help customers achieve sustained business growth and differentiated solutions for applications, when extreme performance matters,” he added. Erema's push on closing the loop in recycling At K2016, Austrian recycling machinery maker Erema had a special outdoor pavilion housing its Careformance Recycling Centre, where it was recycling over 30 tonnes of plastic waste on its Intarema TVEplus 1108 recycling system during the show. At the opening of the centre, Manfred Hackl, CEO of Erema, said that the image of plastics was bad and needed to be changed. “The presence of companies from different areas of the industry (today) is a strong message for the need to work together to close the loop,” he added.