MacPlas International October 2022

DID YOU KNOW THAT AN ICE CREAM TUB CAN BE RECYCLABLE AND COMPOSTABLE?

There is an increasing tendency to use biodegradable and compostable raw materials obtained from natural fibers for the production of food containers. This great opportunity, combined with the high possibilities of total recycling of the most used polymers, gives the transformation of plastic materials the leadership in the production of containers for food and medical use with a low environmental impact.

THE INJECTION MOULDING MACHINE

ULTRA HIGH INJECTION SPEED. In a world where large quantities of food and medicines need increasingly to be preserved and transported anywhere, BMB has created the high productivity machine par excellence. The hybrid nature of the HP Series favours reduced consumption thanks to the electric drives with direct motors and at the same time offers very powerful injections controlled by a servo valve under accumulator. Specific pressures of 2500 kg/cm2 and injection speeds of over 1500 mm/s are the guarantee of high productivity and great quality for thin-walled containers, sometimes deep and difficult to be injected, such as food or medical containers.

BMB HP, the new Series of BMB machines, a perfect synergy of speed and precision.

FULL ELECTRIC MACHINE

10 MARKETING

10 Editor’s letter K 2022: a yearning for face to face meetings 12 Bracing for increased instability, higher prices, and lower growth 17 Sector is growing but critical factors are persisting 20 Pvc consumption rebounds in 2021 20 Production of fossil fuel-based PE grows up to 2043, but efforts for circularity are also increasing 21 Production capacity increase and new investments for North American nonwovens industry

23 PLASTICS AND ENVIRONMENT

23 How to square supply and demand 26 EU harmonisation going backwards for the SUPD first anniversary 26 In 2021 VinylPlus exceeded 810 kt of recycled PVC 27 A new certification scheme for plastics recyclers

29 MACHINERY AND ANCILLARY EQUIPMENT

29 Focus on energy saving 33 There is only a “Plan A” 37 Extreme machining operations with ground-breaking technology 41 Sustainable industrial packaging 44 Complete lines for the entire extrusion industry

48 Lines for extruding reinforced thermoplastic pipes 51 Looking to K 2022 and beyond 55 Technologies for medical tubing production 59 New design, energy saving and smart solutions for plastics recycling 63 More than sixty years of shared growth 66 A company resulting of evolution and cutting-edge development 68 Look to the future together 68 Bigger than ever 70 A new way to mould rubber 70 Odour reduction of post-consumer polymers 71 Innovation, reliability, sustainability 72 All about plastic printing 74 A brand for flexibility and efficiency in welding 74 Technology for significantly reducing costs 75 Less is more 77 Global approach, italian roots 81 A new concept of automation 84 Five moulds running 87 The result of twenty years of experience 91 What is really needed for an efficient recycling 95 A new approach for a more sustainable future 98 The darker it is, the better you see the stars 100 The corona treatment made in italy 102 55 Years of experience in the technology of plastic powders mixing

A complete solution

this. At the same time, the underbody battery housing should have a seal that allows the housing to be opened and closed non-destructively at any time for the replacement of the entire EV battery, while maintaining the reliable housing tightness. The cooperation between Sonderhoff (Henkel Group) and Renault for the battery housing sealing of the Zoe E-Tech aimed to develop an innovative and customized complete system solution using the Sonderhoff technology portfolio, consisting of a mixing and dosing machine and sealing foam for a highly reliable automated series production process.

The batteries in Renaultʼs best-selling Zoe E-Tech electric vehicle have proven themselves in tough everyday endurance tests since its market launch in 2013. In its article dated May 10, 2022, Renault reports that more than 99% of all its batteries installed since then are still fully functional. One reason for this is above all the high level of sealing provided by the Sonderhoff solution against dust, moisture, and thus corrosion.

In the fully automatic application process, a 2-component polyurethane sealing foam from the Fermapor K31 product family is applied by the robot-controlled mixing head of the mixing and dosing machine into the contour of the underbody

THERE IS

Some car makers cannot build cars because they are unable to obtain chips for electronics. This has had a knock-on effect upstream, putting some plastics component suppliers in difficulties

The EU plastics industry is tackling challenges on multiple fronts. In packaging, it has become a victim of its own success, particularly in single-use applications. In building, some infrastructure projects may go on hold as governments divert some funds to defence, although business is being boosted by incentives to improve house energy efficiency. In automotive, component suppliers are suffering because car makers have been cutting production as they cannot obtain the chips for their electronics

Since early 2020, Covid-19 has had major effects on production, occasionally positive but mostly negative. And now, just as Europe and the rest of the world was recovering from the devastating two years of the pandemic, we have the tragedy of the Ukraine conflict.

Discussing the situation, Martin Wiesweg, executive director Polymers EMEA at consultant IHS Markit, said that, quite apart from causing a humanitarian disaster, the crisis is weighing heavy on the plastics business, in terms of cost inflation, the worsening of supply chain bottlenecks, including energy supply, while also raising the spectre of demand shock amid the fear of global stagflation.

Inflation across the EU hit an all-time high of 7.5% in March. S&P Global Economics said on March 30 that it expects eurozone growth to be 3.3% this year, compared to 4.4% in a previous forecast, and inflation to reach 5% this year and stay above 2% in 2023.

“In the past, high crude oil prices weighed negatively on European plastic demand (see chart)”, says Wiesweg. Prices soaring further could see consumer disposable income slumping, impacting retail sales. Sectors driven by consumer discretionary income like white goods, consumer products, and automotive would fare poorly as buyers try to conserve cash. “In the short to

medium term, Europe could potentially see a demand contraction across polymers”.

Plastics processing is on course for the circular economy

Germany remains the powerhouse of the European plastics industry, with its multiple strengths in materials, equipment, and processing capability. But some sectors are hurting all the same.

According to German plastics processing industry umbrella organisation GKV, industry sales increased by 12.6% to 69.4 billion euros in 2021, but member companies remain under a lot of pressure to produce good results. It cites “exorbitant cost explosions” for raw materials and energy, as well as the many delivery delays and resulting order suspensions, particularly in automotive supplies.

The automotive sector has provided a unique set of problems. Several European car makers have temporarily shut down production in recent months, with important negative effects in the supply chain, including the permanent closure at some processors. Passenger car registrations fell by 2.4% in 2021 to just below 10m units across the 27-country EU, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, Acea. Jincy Varghese, demand analyst at Icis, forecasts EU automotive out-

put to grow 17% in 2022, although it will still be down 26% from 2019 levels. A healthy recovery is only likely in the second half. The overall economic outlook for 2022 remains very mixed, said GKV president Roland Roth at the association’s annual confer ence in March. Around half of association members expected sales growth when poled in the run-up to the conference, but a good quarter expected further falls. Several were thinking about relocating or terminating production. Roth called for a reduction in government surcharges on energy prices. As for material pric es, he said recent increases have been “almost insane”. On average, prices for plastics in Europe increased by more than 50% year-on-year in the first half of 2021 and have stayed high. In February 2021, for example, virgin PET sold for around 1 euro/ kg. In March of this year, the price was around 1.7 euro/kg. LL DPE went from around 1.2 euro/kg to around 1.9 over the same period.

But the GKV president remains optimistic: “In 2022, as plastics processors, we will continue to get the best out of polymer ma terials and successfully complete the tasks ahead”, he said. Alarm bells have been ringing over energy prices at Unionplast, which represents Italian plastics processing companies. “The crisis in energy prices is seriously affecting a sector that has over 5000 companies, and more than 100000 employees”, says Mar co Bergaglio, president of the association. “The uncontrolled in crease in energy costs and the growing difficulty in finding raw materials is a deadly mix for our sector and creates the real risk of not being able to meet the demands of our customers. This situation has inevitable consequences also on the prices of our products”.

Packaging challenges

High and escalating resin prices globally means that packag ing market is under continuing pressure. “Given that recycla ble granular is now at the same price as virgin polymer was 12 months ago, the impetus to lightweight now stretches across all packaging material substrates, not just virgin polymers”, says Gerd Liebig, CEO of Sumitomo (SHI) Demag.

The move towards tethered caps (mandatory from 2024 under Single-Use Plastics Directive, or SUPD) and extensions of Ex tended Producer Responsibility (effective 2023) will inevitably have a strong influence, as does the new EU Packaging Levy on non-recycled packaging waste, Liebig adds. (Since Jan 1, 2021, the EU charges member states 0.80 euro/kg of plastics packag ing waste that is not recycled. States are free to choose how to finance the levy).

The European plastics industry is in fact having to contend with various pieces of legislation relating to plastics waste. For exam ple, there is now a mandate that 55% of all plastic packaging in the EU be recyclable by 2030, as well as the levy on non-recycled

Plastics products

Semifinished products

Packaging materials

Building products

Other plastics products

Technical parts

Plastics materials in primary form

Source: DeSatis; GKV/TecPart

plastic packaging waste. Some countries are also introducing lo cal legislation (Spain and France for example), making the play ing field not as level as it should be. Industry is already having to face up to some consequences of the SUPD, some elements of which came into force on July 3, 2021, in most EU countries, although the roll-out of the legisla tion has not been entirely smooth. In Italy, for example, it only became law in January, with a delay on final implementation; it is also more flexible in its definitions of plastics products than Brussels originally intended, and whereas the SUP Directive does not exempt certain biodegradable plastics, the Italian leg islation does.

On the subject of bioplastics, the European Bioplastics trade as sociation says: “Unfortunately, in Europe, bioplastics still don’t obtain the same degree of support that other innovative indus tries receive from EU political decision makers. The EU Com mission has sometimes contradictory positions on bioplastics. Member State positions on bioplastics also vary a lot; the reg ulatory environment is anything but harmonized. This discour ages investment in R&D and in production capacities. Despite these challenges, development in European bioplastics is very positive. Global production capacities still represent less than 1% of the more than 367 million tons of all plastics, but by 2026, bioplastics production will pass the 2% mark for the first time”. Production capacities for bioplastics in Europe were close to 600 kt in 2021 and can be expected to increase to around 1 mil lion tons within the next five years.

In the UK, now outside the EU, a new tax on plastic packaging came into force on April 1 of this year. The tax applies to plastic packaging components that do not contain at least 30% recy cled plastic and that are either manufactured in the UK or im ported into the UK (again, there are exemptions). The tax will be levied at a rate of 200 pound/t (approx. 235 euro/t). At the British Plastics Federation, general director Philip Law is determined to see the positive side: “The plastics packaging tax could ulti

Plastic bottles, cups and bags for recycling. What was once considered rubbish is now a useful feedstock

Sabic

LyondellBasell is developing its own chemical recycling technology, MoReTec, at a pilot plant in Ferrara, Italy.

Several other polymer suppliers in Europe are following suit

Fig. 2 - EU Plastics industry production trends, 2011-2021. The sharp decline due to the coronavirus pandemic in the first half of 2020 was followed by a strong recovery

mately be a platform for innovation and help reduce the heat of public debate”.

Recycling on the rise

“New legislation and targets for the recycling of plastics and the use of recyclate are changing the way the whole plastics industry must operate”, says Elizabeth Carroll, consultant, Recycling and Sustainability, at AMI Consulting, which has a new report out on mechanical recycling in Europe. “The mechanical plastics recycling industry, therefore, has become the focal point for investments, acquisition, and expansion”, she says. Plastics recyclate production in Europe was 8.2 million tons in 2021 and is forecast to grow at a rate of 5.6%/year to 2030. That compares with the 35.6 million tons of commodity plastics that entered the waste stream in 2021. “This implies that Europe achieved an overall plastic recycling rate of 23.1%”, says Carroll. That figure is most likely to rise as the plastics industry makes major investments in recycling technologies of diverse types. The picture of how to convert recycled plastics into high-value products is brightening. Says Engel’s CEO Stefan Engleder: “Thanks to horizontal networking along the value chain, we will no longer have to downcycle materials in the future, but can actually re- or even upcycle them. If we exchange information and data across companies, we will be able to recycle plastic waste and produce high-quality plastic products from it again. Digital transformation is the prerequisite for rapidly advancing the issues of sustainability”.

And at compounding equipment company Coperion, Marina Matta, team leader Process Technology Engineering Plastics, says: “We are observing many ground-breaking developments that significantly improve the sorting and washing quality of

waste. The pyrolysis process has also recently been significantly enhanced, so that this recycling process can be carried out in a much more energy-efficient way”.

Polymer suppliers going green

European polymer producers are making major efforts to improve the sustainability of their products. At polyolefins and compounds major LyondellBasell, Richard Roudeix, senior vice president - Olefins & Polyolefins Europe, Middle East, Africa and India, says: “Becoming climate neutral by 2050 requires the industry to go through a deep transformation in a relatively short time frame, especially considering that some technologies to completely decarbonise our processes are still in early phases of development. Currently, high costs for energy are compressing industry profits at the exact moment the industry needs additional funds to make decarbonization investments”. Polymer suppliers have not been entirely eye to eye with European policy makers on how to move to a green economy, but opinions are converging. “LyondellBasell believes alternative government policies and voluntary measures are more effective than relying uniquely on national taxes in achieving environmental goals”, says Roudeix. He suggests that a fee based on a product’s recyclability could be used to fund improvements in plastics recycling infrastructure and programs.

Similar comments come from Sabic: “However, the reality is that there is currently greater demand for recycled plastics than the supply available. Manufacturers need to find a way to scale up in order to instigate a real change. For example, it is important that the European regulatory framework recognize chemical recycled resin as equivalent to virgin resin produced from fossil feedstock in order to increase availability and drive scalability”.

At Basf, a representative says: “We expect that plastics will play a vital role in achieving the EU´s net zero emissions goals by helping to deliver emission savings for key sectors like construction, automotive, or food packaging. We are striving worldwide to achieve net zero CO2 emissions by 2050”.

Plastics Europe’s managing director Virginia Janssens says its members support the 30% EU mandatory target for recycled content in plastics packaging by 2030 and have recently announced 7.2 billion euros of planned investments in chemical recycling by 2030 in Europe.

Throughout and beyond what hopefully will be the temporary crises of Covid and Ukraine, “The world remains firmly focused on circularity, plastic pollution, and environmental leakage”, concludes Wiesweg at IHS Markit. “The circularity drive will spur innovation in chemical recycling, helping achieve world scale commercial viability which along with mechanical recycling will steadily displace virgin plastic resin”. www.macplas.it

During the annual meeting of Amaplast, president Dario Previero illustrated the progress of the Italian industry of machinery and ancillary equipment for plastics and rubber processing, also confirming the effectiveness of the synergy amongst Amaplast, Acimac and Ucima

BY STEFANIA ARIOLI

The annual member assembly of Amaplast - the national trade association, member of Confindustria, that unites some 170 Italian manufacturers of machinery, equipment, and moulds for plastics and rubber - took place on July 7, 2022, at Villa Borromeo in Cassano d’Adda (Milan).

In his address, president Dario Previero illustrated the performance of the Italian industry of plastics and rubber processing machinery, commenting on the results of the second edition of the National Statistics Study by the Mecs-Amaplast Statistical Study Centre on 400 manufacturers who generated revenues of over 4 billion euros in 2021, a twelve percent increase over 2020 with a 72% share going to exports.

Very lively domestic demand - supported by the national incentives for Industry 4.0 - and good performance in exports made it possible to return easily to pre-Covid levels and companies say they are moderately optimistic for the current year. Of course the degree and consolidation of the recovery are conditioned by well-known negative factors characterizing economic reality, beyond the natural process of adjustment of the curve of supply and demand, after the spikes that followed the Covid crisis: increases in the

costs of raw materials and energy, and especially the difficulty in obtaining components, the increase in transport fees, and international tensions, as well as the uncertainties associated with repeated waves of the pandemic. These were the key themes in Previero’s talk, stressing that it is now indispensable that companies be able to adapt rapidly to the global context, now characterized by a sequence of disruptive events: emergencies seem to have become the new normal. Dario Previero went on to confirm the effectiveness of synergy with Acimac (Association of Italian Manufacturers of Machinery and Equipment for Ceramics) and Ucima (Italian Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Association), which has made it possible to share and make available a series of increasingly up-todate and customized services to member companies, supporting them in their dayto-day operations.

The Amaplast assembly included a voting session which elected the nine members of the Board of Directors for the two-year term 2022-2024: Alessandro Balzanelli (FB Balzanelli), Michele Bandera (Costruzioni Meccaniche Luigi Bandera), Gianfranco Cattapan (Plastic Systems, Pegaso Industries Group), Maria Grazia Colombo (BFM), Giovanna Franceschetti (Gefran), Gianni

Sector data

The second National Statistics Study by the Mecs-Amaplast Statistical Study Centre produced a snapshot of some 400 Italian manufacturers of plastics and rubber processing machinery, equipment, and moulds, employing more than 13900 people and generating revenues of over 4 billion euros in 2021 (+12% over 2020). The average export share is 72%, with peaks of 82% for larger companies. And it is the companies in the category with turnover in excess of 50 million euros (less than 5% of the total) that made the greatest contribution to revenues (over 38% of overall revenues for the industry). As regards geography, most of the companies (approximately 52%) are located in Lombardy, primarily in the provinces

In the picture, from the right: Amaplastʼs president Dario Previero, director Mario Maggiani and vice president

Luoni (Elba), Fabiola Plebani (Mast), Barbara Ulcelli (IMG) e Corrado Zanga (Uniloy Italia).

Massimo Margaglione

After the postponement of the historic Plast event to 2023, the organizer Promaplast has decided to kick off the first edition of Greenplast (Fiera Milano, May 3-6, 2022), an exhibition dedicated to environmental sustainability, energy efficiency, recoveryreuse-recycling and circular economy

of Varese, Milan, and Brescia. Next in line are the regions of Emilia-Romagna with 15%, Veneto with 13%, and Piedmont with 9%. Regarding the customer catego ries of machinery manufacturers, pack aging is again in first place, representing 41% of the total (27% food and 14% nonfood), followed by automotive with 18%, and construction with 10%, just to men tion the main outlet markets. The med ical segment also deserves a mention: although it amounts to a relatively small percentage of the total (5%, one point higher than in 2020), it recorded a rather non-surprising 38% increase in revenues for machinery suppliers.

In line with the results of the previous survey, among the macro-categories of machinery, extruders again represent ed the lion’s share of overall production, with 19% of the total. They are followed by auxiliaries with 14%, injection mould ing machines at 11%, and moulds/dies at just under 8%.

Trade exhibitions

Amaplast’s director Mario Maggiani then recalled that, after the postponement to 2023 of the historical international Plast event due to the pandemic, the Amaplast service company Promaplast organized the first edition of Greenplast last May 3-6. The exhibition/convention was ded icated to the topics of environmental sus tainability, energy efficiency, recovery-re use-recycling, and the circular economy.

Taking place in concomitance with Ip ack-Ima, Print4All, Intralogistica Italia, and Pharmintech (as part of The Innovation Al liance project), Greenplast was particular ly successful and earned acclaim from the 170 participating exhibitor companies. It attracted an impressive number of visi tors (over 20000 from 55 countries) and was characterized by the professionalism of the buyers visiting the stands, but espe cially by their awareness and sensitivity regarding the themes of the fair.

The final round-table discussion

The Amaplast member assembly conclud ed with a round-table discussion mod erated by journalist Giuseppe De Filippi, vice director of TG5, and titled “Energy, En vironment, Finance: the new paradigm”, with addresses by Marco Fortis, director and vice president of Fondazione Edison, Guido Brera, director of Investments and co-founder of Kairos Partners Sgr, Alberto Castelli, managing director of Kairos Part ners Sgr, and Paolo Quaini, partner of Intel lera Consulting.

A moment of the final round table, moderated by Giuseppe De Filippi, vice director of TG5 (first from the left), and with the speeches by: Marco Fortis (director and vice president of Fondazione Edison), Paolo Quaini (partner of Intellera Consulting), Alberto Castelli (managing director of Kairos Partners Sgr), and Guido Brera (director of Investments and co-founder of Kairos Partners Sgr), remotely connected via the web

The 2021 results are complemented by the indicators for the first quarter of 2022, which describe a continuing positive trend: with respect to the same period in 2021, orders are up by 10%, revenues by 16%, exports by 13%, and imports by 9%. Expectations for the second quarter are also marked by a certain optimism, at least as regards orders, estimated to have increased further by 6-7%. Naturally, var ious unknowns and issues that follow upon one another and have now been overlapping for several months generate no small concern among business own ers, who remain cautiously optimistic, ex pecting the balance to be positive again in 2022, but less brilliant than last year.

The event hosted the third edition of Packaging Speaks Green, an internation al forum sponsored by Amaplast and Ucima dedicated to the development of the culture of sustainability and circular economy in the plastics and packaging sectors, drawing in over 400 participants. The upcoming edition of Greenplast has already been scheduled for May 27-30, 2025, again featuring The Innovation Al liance format. In the meantime, the Plast organizational machinery has gone into operation: the nineteenth edition of the specialized fair in Milan will take place on September 5-8, 2023, and 30000 square metres have already been reserved by over 600 currently registered exhibitors. In parallel, the international calendar of trade fairs for the sector is being re worked, and Amaplast has a thick pro gramme of participations in all geograph ical sectors, coordinating the Italian collective either in collaboration with ICE-Agenzia, or with its own institutional stand. The first date on the calendar is K in Düsseldorf (October 19-26, 2022), fea turing the presence of almost 400 Italian companies.

For his part, Fortis highlighted the strengths of Italian manufacturing, as well as the crit ical issues characterizing the current con text. “In recent years, Italian industry has achieved equilibrium and gained strength and our economy has proved to be remark ably solid even with respect to the most destabilizing events, maintaining better indices than those of many European and world competitors”, Fortis stated.

Guido Brera offered his thoughts on the true meaning of the ESG paradigm: Environ ment, Social, and Corporate Governance, underscoring the fact that there are no tox ic sectors per se. What matters is the be haviour on the market; even the segments most subject to scrutiny may display virtu ous behaviours in full respect for ESG crite ria. Alberto Castelli called attention to the fact that sustainable finance is by now an irreversible trend and all investment funds have adopted a policy of evaluation of sus tainability. Companies have to see this as an opportunity for business, orienting them selves to the redesign of production chains.

In conclusion, Paolo Quaini outlined the trend in the cost of energy, suggesting that current levels may hold for a number of years. As a consequence, the only way for companies not to lose competitivity is to adopt sustainable solutions; in particu lar machinery manufacturers should offer technologies that make it possible to diver sify energy sources. Those who adopt an ESG approach are able to discern risks and opportunities before others.

The Italian market

PVC consumption rebounds in 2021

Last year, after the decline recorded in 2020, PVC consumption in Italy reached 650000 tons, therefore above the levels of 2019, before the pandemic and the European crisis. Compared to 2020, the increase in PVC consumption is 10%, therefore well above the growth of thermoplastic materials as a whole, whose consumption, with 5.62 million tons, has grown by about 5%. This is, in a nutshell, what emerges from the market survey carried out by Plastic Consult on behalf of the association PVC Forum Italia.

The 650000 tons of PVC processed in Italy during 2021 are the sum of 316000 tons of rigid PVC and 334000 tons of plasticised PVC. 66% of the total is represented by PVC resin, while the remaining 36% by PVC compounds. The breakdown of PVC consumption by application sector in 2021 substantially reflects the figures recorded in recent years, as shown in table 1

The building industry, which covers about a third (223000 t) of total consumption, further strengthens its role as the main application sector: compared to 2020 the increase was 16%, driven by the government’s incentives, especially those aimed to the replacement of old windows with new efficient PVC solutions. The building sector is followed by packaging, which shows a 5% increase in consumption. In general, all application sectors recorded a more than positive trend, with increases of over 10% for E&E, furniture, leisure, telecommunications, clothing and footwear. In 2021, rigid PVC compounds turned more to the Italian domestic market, in the face of a very strong demand.

The production of recycled PVC is also recovering, with volumes above 90100 kt. The prevailing pre-consumption share recorded a growth directly proportional to the consumption and processing of virgin polymer. The postconsumer share has instead consolidated and remained stable. According to Plastic Consult’s forecasts, several external factors will certainly influence the performance of 2022: energy costs, prices and availability of raw materials, transport and logistics costs and inflation have been never so high in the last 25 years. In general, total industrial production held its ground during the first quarter of 2022, but the rest of the year will be weighed down by the aforementioned influences. Specifically, for rigid PVC, a decent first half-year is expected. The level of demand in the building industry is still very high, as shown by the trend of profiles (from resin) and compounds. The pipe sector is a little more in difficulty. Plasticised PVC closed 2021 with excellent growth and for the current year the outlook remains positive: demand is still on the rise and all the main applications are expected to grow, at least in the first half-year. www.pvcforum.it

TABLE 1 - PVC CONSUMPTION IN ITALY BY APPLICATION SECTOR (2021)

Rigid PVC (t) Plasticised PVC

Building/Construction industry 199500 23500

Packaging 36000 27000

Electrical & Electronics 3000 58000

Furniture/Interiors 13000 14000

Paper converting industry 14500 12000

Leisure - 27500

Agriculture 13500 -

Telecommunication - 14500

Transport - 17500

Footwear/Clothing -

appliances

Sundry

Exported compounds

Markets and sustainability

According to the latest findings from the IHS Markit Circular Plastics Service, global plastics demand will grow at an average annual rate of 2.7% through 2050. IHS Markit has incorporated a scenario-based modelling for its forecasts. The base case assumes the circular plastics transition accelerates, with pivotal shifts in social, policy and market forces driving fundamental change. However, the transition moves in different ways and speeds depending upon the country or region being considered. A second scenario (“Green rules”) assumes a more revolutionary effort, with industry moving in an aggressive manner aligned with overall goals for the energy transition but falling short of achieving a full circular model for plastics by 2050. Finally, IHS Markit has modelled a fully successful circular plastics scenario in which non-durable plastics are, by 2050, no longer lost to the environment, land-filled or incinerated. The initial analysis was applied to the global polyethylene (PE) industry and determined the following:

“At some point in the not-too-distant future, production of plastics will begin to disconnect from virgin fossil fuels”, stated Robin Waters, director of Circular Plastics Service at IHS Markit

1. A peak in total demand for polyethylene plastics. The IHS outlook for global PE demand growth anticipates an average annual growth rate of 3.0% through 2050. But a peak in total demand for PE is not expected in any of the three scenarios.

2. A peak in the demand for non-durable applications. PE demand is dominated by non-durable uses, representing approximately 60% of total global demand. Again, IHS does not see a peak in total demand for non-durable PE applications for any of the three scenarios.

3. A peak in virgin polyethylene production. A peak in virgin PE production is expected to be driven by an increased level of mechanical recycling. IHS estimates that by 2050, PE mechanically recycled resins could represent 17% and 33%, respectively of total demand for the Base and Green Rules scenario. However, IHS does not see a peak in virgin PE production for any of the three scenarios.

4. A peak in virgin PE production from fossil-based feedstocks. A peak in virgin polyethylene production from fossil-based feedstocks can result from the large-scale adoption of chemical recycle technologies. The Base case scenario anticipates that a peak in fossil-based plastics demand will not develop during the study timeframe through 2050.

The Green Rules Scenario assumes the aggressive development of mechanical recycle capability and results in a peak in the year 2046. In the aggressive scenario, which also includes the development of chemical recycle the peak arrives in 2043. Combining this aggressive adoption of mechanical and chemical recycle with a fundamental effort to reduce the overall growth of PE demand use (e.g., demand destruction though material substitution, packaging redesign etc.) beginning in 2025, the peak moves even earlier (to 2042 or 2035), with a demand decline of 0.5% and 1.0%, respectively.

Production of fossil fuel-based PE grows up to 2043, but efforts for circularity are also increasing

The Association of the nonwovens fabrics industry (Inda) recently announced the publication of the ninth edition of the annual “North American Nonwovens Supply Report” for its members.

According to the report, North American capacity continues to increase with investments being made across all the processes and for a variety of end-uses. Production output exceeded that of new capacity, resulting in the industry’s nameplate capacity utilization increasing year-over-year, for the fourth consecutive year.

In 2021, capacity of nonwovens in North America reached 5.540 million tons, with an increase from the previous year of 1.8% (net growth of 98300 tons) and an improvement over the previous year’s pandemic-impacted growth rate of 0.5%. The industry was able to quickly

Market research by Inda Production capacity increase and new investments for

North American nonwovens industry

react to the demand for electrostatically charged fine-fiber meltblown used in the manufacture of respirators and pleated face masks. Twenty-two meltblown lines were added in 2020, resulting in 7.2% year-over-year growth rate for meltblown. In 2021, another 12 lines were added, resulting in 8.5% annual growth over 2020.

North American imports, in tonnage, increased 1.6% in 2021 as exports decreased 6.0%. Imports were led by China accounting for 39% of the imports into North America, followed by India (14%) and Germany (9%). Even with the significant shifts in North American trade dynamics, nonwovens tend to stay where they are produced, with the net trade balance (imports less exports, 422100 tons) accounting for less than ten percent of the region’s capacity.

“This is a great time to be in nonwovens”,

said Brad Kalil, director of Market Intelligence & Economic Insights at Inda, “and will continue to be so, as demand, and correspondingly localized supply to meet that demand, continues to increase. The nonwovens industry has responded to the pandemic and will continue to provide materials that keep the surfaces we touch clean, protect the air we breathe, and provide a barrier to keep our bodies safe. The industry has responded by investing in new assets to ensure the steady flow of these needed materials. Across the two-year period, 2020 and 2021, the nonwovens industry has publicly announced capacity investments of 203 million dollars. For this year and next capacity investments of 686 million dollars have been forecasted in North America”. www.inda.org

“Last Inda annual report is the most complete and accurate portrayal for both rolled goods for sale and also material produced for internal consumption in North America. It also presents the industry operating rates in key areas. This is the essential metric on supply/demand balance for strategic planning and business investment decisions”, said Dave Rousse, Inda president

Global demand for post-consumer recycled resin has been increasing at a rate that outpaces the growth in supply BY PAULA LEARDINI*

As of 2021, there were over 48 million tons of input capacity for recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET), recycled polyethylene (rPE), and recycled polypropylene (rPP) globally, representing over 2500 mechanical recycling plants, according to the ICIS Recycling Supply Tracker - Mechanical.

The average capacity of a mechanical recycling plant is approximately 20000 tons per year, which is relatively small in comparison to the average size of virgin polymer plants. At this scale, it makes it challenging for the mechanical recycling industry to grow at a significant rate.

Typically concentrated in large cities, recycling plants are located alongside either recycling infrastructure for more developed economies or highly populated areas in less developed economies. However, waste is everywhere, so should be recycling capabilities.

In terms of region, Asia holds the majority of global capacity at 40%, mainly due to strong end markets, namely recycled polyester fibres. This is followed by Europe with over 30% share. The top three regions, which are Asia, Europe and North America, together represent almost 90% of the total. This emphasises the disparity in recycling capacity development across the globe. Asia’s growth really started when China implemented waste management and recycling policies in the early 2000s while Europe is a mature market, having established its recycling industry many decades ago.

In North America companies have been using recycled polymer feedstocks for economic advantage in typically low-quality applications. However, in the last couple years, demand is growing for premium applications.

Most developing regions have been driven purely economics in adopting recycled polymers by end markets that were able to do so. The take-up of recycled polymers in higher value applications is happening, though at a different pace. In those regions,

there have not been enough drivers in the market, including lack of funding, infrastructure and pull from end markets.

Globally, rPET is the largest recycled polymer with 40% share of total recycling input capacity, followed by rPE with 38%, and rPP with 22%. PET recycling is reliant on post-consumer bottles for its feedstock, while polyolefins have a greater split between post-consumer packaging and bottles and post-industrial sources. Certification for the use of recycled polymers in food contact applications brings an additional challenge to the supply of recycled plastics. Currently, only 10% of global recycling capacity is certified as food grade, with PET representing more than 80% of that supply and polyolefins the balance.

Global demand for recycled resins is growing across all polymers, not just PET and most specifically for post-consumer recyclates (PCR), and food grade materials. Thus, increasing PCR and food grade recycled polymer volumes beyond PET will be a high priority in the mid-term, as demand from food and beverage packaging sectors gains momentum.

Recycled plastics demand drivers

Below are the two main factors that directly influence demand for recycled plastics:

1. Corporate sustainability goals

Corporations are setting individual voluntary targets around sustainability, besides taking part in initiatives such as the Global Commitment and Plastic Pacts. A common goal is increasing recycled content in plastic packaging and products. Targets typically range between 10% and 50%. The voluntary goals have been driving demand worldwide due to the multinational presence of these corporations and FMCGs.

2. Legislation Europe has a range of targets on collection and recycling of plastic waste as well as specific region-wide mandatory recycled content targets of 25% in PET bottles by 2025 and 30% of all plastic

bottles by 2030 under the Single Use Plastics Directive. Similarly, in the US, three states have passed minimum recycled content mandates. California’s mandate for plastic beverage containers came into effect on January 1, 2022. Washington and New Jersey have passed similar bills that start in 2023 and 2024, respectively, and include more product categories such as non-beverage con tainers, plastic carryout bags, and trash bags. Targets vary from 10% to 50% over the time, depending on the category. Elsewhere in the world, many regions still lack the legislative push to recover or recycle plastic waste, although that land scape is gradually changing. Asia, in particular south-eastern countries including Indonesia, has a raft of policies being devel oped to tackle marine pollution and these are now beginning to be implemented.

However, aside from voluntary initiatives led by NGOs or indus try action groups, other regions such as Middle East, Africa, and Latin America currently lack any substantive government action on managing plastic waste.

Although there is some expectation that recycling goals will in crease over the time, uncertainties remain on whether current goals can be achieved. The constraints on recycled plastics sup ply, together with high prices mainly due to the supply and de mand imbalance, could make it unrealistic for most companies to reach the targets or their own pledges.

Global supply and demand gap

Based on global recycle output as a percentage of global virgin consumption (for PET, PE, and PP), ICIS has assessed a recycling penetration rate in 2021 of under 12%. However, average recy cled content targets over the next few years to 2030 are way be yond that. To quantify that, ICIS has recently created an outlook model to calculate how much recycled resin is required to meet the expected global demand for 2025 and 2030. The model con siders the following recycled content assumptions: 50% for both 2025 and 2030 for PET; 25% for 2025, and 35% for 2030 for PE and PP. As a result, a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of over 45% would be needed on recycle output to achieve the recycle content rates assumed by 2025 for PET, PE, and PP. The challenge in meeting this growth rate is primarily in the con straints in collection and sorting, for both formal and informal infrastructures. It is pos sible to build a new recycling plant in 12-24 months, depending on technology but there at present insufficient qualities and quan tities of waste feedstock to run the plants. Regarding PET alone, at least 1800 new re cycling plants with an average output of 25000 tons/year would be necessary glob ally to achieve the 2025 targets. In addition, over 20% CAGR would be required to meet the targets set for 2030 with a need of nearly

600 new recycling plants per year in the next 9 years for the three polymers. The model does not restrict the virgin consumption to certain applications and does not limit the recycle output to PCR and food grade. For primary packaging that requires food grade PCR, the gap on capacity requirements would be even higher. The investment required to grow capacities are not only de pendent on the financial viability of the recycling plant, where costs include logistics, sorting, collection, washing, drying, grinding, among others, and approvals for food grade, if need ed. But also, the availability of quality feedstocks to run the plants, the biggest challenge of all. There are also still markets that lack the end market pull for recycled polymers for high val ue applications that drive growth in new capacities. The out look at present is, without some fundamental changes in policy or more robust and urgent industry action in managing waste, these growth rates will be challenging to meet.

In order to square the supply and demand gap, significant im provement in collection is needed worldwide. Plastic waste col lection rates are overall low globally and contamination is a lim itation. Therefore, both quantity and quality of waste collected must improve to meet the requirements of the different grades of recycled products. Though the physical act of collection is critical, making sure that material is compatible with current col lection and sorting systems is the first step to increase volumes that can be processed by the Material Recovery Facilities (MRF). Then, expanding the range of items collected as technology evolves will enable the recycling supply chain to deliver more grades to meet new end markets’ demand.

Design for recycling is vital to address the compatibility of ma terials and composition to ensure materials are technically re cyclable and acceptable to collection systems. As brands work towards 100% recyclable, reusable, or compostable packaging by 2025, significant improvements are expected in this space. Collaboration between government and industry is essential with focus on:

• Legislation to support improved collection such as Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes.

• Harmonisation within the supply chain, supported by trade association co-ordination and guidelines.

• Support and investment from brand and producers in impro ving the recyclability of products and packaging as well as de velopment of collection infrastructures to deliver higher quali ty and quantities of materials for recycling.

• All of this requires consumer engagement in recycling pro grammes to reduce plastic littering and actively recycle, as well as consumer purchasing behaviour for more sustainable products including those with recycled content. www.icis.com

*Senior analyst, Plastic Recycling, at ICIS

The author of this article: Paula Leardini, senior analyst, Plastic Recycling, at ICIS

The state of play for the Single-Use Plastics Directive EU harmonisation going backwards for the SUPD first anniversary

On July 3, 2021, was the deadline for the transposition of EUwide bans and marking rules into national legal frameworks of the EU Single-Use Plastics (SUP) Directive. For its first anniversary, the state of play is not at its best. European plastic packaging manufacturers are very concerned because not all the member states have implemented the mandatory requirement of the SUP Directive in time. This is one of the consequences of the great hurry in which the 2019 Directive was adopted. Besides, the Commission’s guidelines on the scope of the directive were published only four weeks before the deadline, which did not contribute to a harmonized implementation in the EU.

Despite the little clarity given by the Commission, there is still important room for interpretation by the member states leading to unexpected bias. Several member states are either going further in the restrictions or provide for exemptions and tightening. For a year now, essenscia, IK Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen and EuPC are joining forces to evaluate the implementation across members states. Even if the maps designed by the three associations demonstrate the evolution of the situation (figure 1), it is still possible to point out, after a year, the consequences of a patchwork of packaging laws for the consumers and companies in the EU. The internal market is fragmented more than ever with the increasing establishment of special national rules which undermine its integrity. According to research by the three associations, so far, only 13 member states have implemented the restrictions foreseen in the directive. The plastics industry is also very worried by the attempts of several member states to introduce more far-reaching bans, e.g. for fruit and vegetable packaging, as well as country specific labelling regulations. The Commission should fulfil its responsibility by acting as guardian of the EU treaties more strongly and taking more consistent action against such diverging national rules, in order to achieve the ambitious circular economy targets. www.plasticsconverters.eu

Fig. 1 - PVC recycled within the VinylPlus framework

Embracing EU Green Deal ambitions

In 2021 VinylPlus exceeded 810 kt of recycled PVC

On the occasion of VinylPlus Sustainability Forum 2022, VinylPlus announced the results of the first year of its 2030 commitment. Livestreamed from Brussels, VSF2022 gathered online around 500 participants from 40 countries. Under the theme “Embracing EU Green Deal Ambitions”, perspectives and scenarios generated by the current EU policy landscape were discussed, as well as their impact on the plastics and PVC industry.

Despite the difficult economic conditions, 810775 tons of PVC waste were recycled and used in new products within the VinylPlus framework, which represents around 26.9% of the total PVC waste generated in 2021 in the EU-27, Norway, Switzerland and the UK. VinylPlus recycling rate is above the 23.1% recycling rate estimated by AMI Consulting for the overall plastics recycling in Europe in 2021.

“With our Commitment to 2030”, Brigitte Dero, managing director of VinylPlus, stated, “we aim to contribute to the United Nations 2030 agenda for sustainable development, with a particular focus on sustainable consumption and production, climate change and partnerships”. In line with the EU Circular Plastics Alliance’s (CPA) principles, VinylPlus is committed to ensuring the proper traceability of waste. In 2021, Recovinyl launched RecoTrace to further enhance its recording and tracing schemes for recycling volumes and the uptake of recyclates in new products. RecoTrace is the first system to comply with the CPA’s monitoring requirements. Commenting VinylPlus’ achievements in advancing its circularity ambitions, Stefan Sommer, chair of VinylPlus, said: “We have taken responsibility for accelerating the transition of the European PVC value chain to a more sustainable and circular industry. Our ambition is to be pacesetters in innovation and collaboration by acting at the forefront of the circular economy and sustainable development in the plastics sector. Once again, I would like to emphasise the efforts made to scaling up PVC value chain circularity. These have allowed us to recycle close to 7.3 million tons of PVC into new products since 2000, preventing the release of more than 14.5 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere”.

Fig. 1 - According to research by the three associations essenscia, IK and EuPC, only 13 member states have implemented the restrictions foreseen in the SUP Directive. On the left: SUPD provisions regarding article 5 (EU wide ban of certain items). On the right: SUPD provisions about article 7 (Marking requirements for beverage cups etc.)

A new certification scheme for plastics recyclers

The non-profit initiative RecyClass extends its scope with the first European-wide audit scheme for plastic recyclers based on EN 15343 and fulfilling the requirements for conformity assessment described in ISO 17065. This certification will support the industry in complying with upcoming market and legal requirements in a harmonised, transparent and reliable manner.

“The new RecyClass Recycling Process Certification is the first step of ensuring the origin of recycled plastics”, said Paolo Glerean, RecyClass chairman. “Apart from complementing the existing Recycled Plastics Traceability Certification which will recognise RecyClass Recycling Process as supplier’s certificate, it will also create synergies and ensure verification of the entire chain of custody requirements

for recycled content in products. With this we aim to provide a set of robust tools that will support the industry in substantiating their claims on recycled content and on the use of plastics recyclates”.

The Recycling Process Conformity Assessment Scheme was developed following the traceability principles in line with a controlled blending chain of custody model as defined in ISO 22095. The scheme covers requirements on plastics traceability, quality management, calculation of recycled content and environmental performance. Additional requirements are set for food contact processes, cosmetics and household applications, as well as corporate social responsibility. Furthermore, the food contact modules have been developed according to the new requirements

in the revised regulation on recycled plastics in food contact.

The compliance of the new RecyClass Recycling Process Certification is being evaluated by the European Cooperation for Accreditation via the Spanish Accreditation Body (Enac) as a first step towards the issuing of certificates complaint with ISO 17065 via accredited certification bodies. www.recyclass.eu

Excitement is mounting in the run-up to the K 2022 and Arburg adopts a clear message for its trade fair appearance: “There is only a Plan A”. It conveys that the machine manufacturer is committed to making its contribution and presenting solutions for the important global issues of sustainability, the circular economy and carbon reduction

With its trade fair stand (A13, hall 13) and with the arburgGREENworld pavilion in the VDMA Circular Economy Forum, Arburg showcases at K 2022 its pioneer role in resource conservation. Combined with extensive digitalisation, the Lossburg-based company is perfectly positioned to provide high-end technology for greater sustainability.

“The issues of sustainability, resource conservation and livelihoods are an increasing concern for people, especially in connection with plastics”, says Juliane Hehl, managing partner at Arburg and responsible for marketing and business development. “One of the key questions is: how can we sustainably combine ecology, economy and social coexistence today and in the future?” Arburg has been focusing on this topic for a long time, not

only in terms of production, but also in terms of products. “As a machine manufacturer, we are responsible for consuming as few resources as possible when manufacturing our machines”, adds Hehl. But it also means that customers can use Arburg machines to implement processes that save on resources and offer solutions for the circular economy.

“It’s a complex task as it involves looking at the entire value creation chain”, the managing partner sums it up. The goal is to sustainably reduce the carbon footprint in plastics processing and feed the recyclable plastics material back into the materials cycle.

The “Plan A”

“With “Plan A”, we want to show visitors of the K 2022 we have understood these contexts and, as a machine manufac-

turer, we are making our contribution by tackling these issues on both a strategic and an operational level”, explains the marketing director Christoph Schumacher. “Our message “There is only a Plan A” communicates clearly that there can be no “Plan B” when it comes to resource conservation, circular economy and carbon reduction, following the motto of the sustainability movement “There is no Planet B”. Of course, “Plan A” also corresponds with the focal points of K 2022, namely the circular economy, digitalisation and climate protection, which have become even more important global challenges since the last trade fair in 2019.

“Our trade fair appearance underlines that we have a “Plan A” when it comes to the perfect combination of sustainability, efficiency and cutting-edge technology”, emphasises Schumacher.

Juliane Hehl, managing partner at Arburg and responsible for marketing and business development

From June 22 to 25, over 3700 visitors came to the German company headquarters in Lossburg for the Arburg Technology Days and a preview of the company’s display at K 2022. Awaiting them under the title, “Think Tank”, were around 50 machine exhibits, the Efficiency Arena with its focus on digitalisation and sustainability, service solutions and expert presentations

ed directly in a mill and is then returned straight back into the process as regrind and reused. Arburg wants to “rock” the ar burgGREENworld pavilion with a young, completely new team at the stand. The team, which includes many trainees, also is a striking reminder: sustainability is a key component of our future; today’s ef forts are essential for future generations.

Another networked, compact turnkey system is based on an Allrounder 375 V with a six-axis robot and Arburg Turnkey Control Module (ATCM) and produces a bicycle tool from recycled PA66/6 (GF50).

The Arburg marketing director Christoph Schumacher

Sustainability in theory and practice

How exactly can digitalisation deliver sus tainability? For example, through target ed sorting and recycling of plastics. Tools include the R-Cycle initiative and marking technologies such as watermarks or QR codes that are applied to products during the manufacturing process. Or equipping the Gestica control system with various digital assistance systems to make it eas ier for customers to manage the problem of fluctuating material quality of recycled plastics.

Technologies for more sustainability and production efficiency

The machinery manufacturer has adopted a clear message for its trade fair appearance

The arburgGREENworld pavilion is all about concrete sustainability measures in production and products: in other words, about what Arburg does within its own company to conserve resources and what its products do for customers. “Greenline” plugs from Fischer, one of the market leaders for fastening systems, are produced on an electric Allrounder 370 A with recycled plastics package and Mul tilift robotic system. The give-away is a prime example of a successful circular economy in the field of post-industri al recycled (PIR). The sprue is deposit

The stand showcases corresponding Ar burg technologies that enable sustaina ble, efficient manufacturing. Exhibits in cludes solutions with a small footprint, process control and networked periph erals, as well as completely new tech nologies, configurations with compact automation or the series production of mass-produced articles. A total of eight hydraulic, hybrid and electric Allrounders with a clamping force of between 350 and 6500 kN and two Freeformers for industri al additive manufacturing are on show at the trade fair stand. All injection mould ing machines are automated with robot ic systems, in some cases integrated into complex turnkey systems and connected to the “arburgXworld” customer portal.

Visitors are able to see the potentials of the Gestica control system and its as sistants, such as the “aXw Control FillAs sist”. The Varimos plug-in from Simcon is shown for the first time, which displays the effects of changes to machine param eters based on AI.

Another real eye-catcher is the produc tion of a high-quality tool case in Arburg design on a hybrid Allrounder 1120 H with a clamping force of 6500 kN. No less than three exhibits are equipped with the Ar burg recycled plastics package: an elec tric Allrounder 470 A produces PP han dles from post-consumer recycled (PCR), while a hydraulic Allrounder 270 S com pact uses glass-fibre-reinforced recycled PPS to make tweezers. The exhibit also has secure 5G mobile connectivity, a pilot project by Arburg and Telekom.

A further “smart” exhibit is a hybrid pack aging Allrounder 630 H in a cleanroom design that produces around 18000 transparent PET blood tubes per hour: the injection moulding machine commu nicates with the mould, hot runner con troller, material dryer and automation via the Gestica control system and OPC UA. With an electric Allrounder 720 A, Arburg presents an alternative to deepdraw ing. Its new size 1300 injection unit ena bles high injection volume flows thanks to precise AMKmotion servo motors. The exhibit manufactures thin-walled, round IML cups. An Allrounder More 1600 man ufactures Luer lock connectors for medi cal technology. The application is the first to show handling with a Yaskawa robot, which can be directly programmed via the Gestica control system. A definite high light in terms of mould technology is the Allrounder Cube 1800 with an 8+8+8-cavi ty cube mould with new Citi technology of Arburg partner Foboha. The three-com ponent cube mould produces a func tional component from PP, TPE and POM. A six-axis robot simultaneously fills the mould, cools it and removes the parts.

Everything under one roof Products from two sister companies are also on show: two 3D printers from innno vatiQ as well as the components from AM Kmotion for the Allrounder powertrain. After all, the powertrain is the hallmark of a state-of-the-art injection moulding ma chine. Thanks to the acquisition of AMK motion, Arburg now has complete control over the development and production of the entire powertrain, including servo motors and servo inverters.

An impressive total of 15 further systems are represented at stands of various Ar burg partner companies, distributed across the entire exhibition.

STAMPANTI FLESSOGRAFICHE

Inchiostrazione

Linea produzione sacchi industriali (FFS)

Svolgitore

Unità

Velocità

TERMOSALDATRICI AUTOMATICHE

800 -1100 -1300 -1500 MM.

Produzione di sacchi stesi Shopper, Bocca Aperta e Block Notes

Produzione NON-STOP per sacchi lunghi fino a 700 mm. e con PAUSA fino a 2000 mm.

Tavolo impilatore per la raccolta dei sacchi in mazzette fino a 8 piste (con o senza spilli)

avanzamento film 180 mt/min.

Produzione di sacchi a bocca aperta avvolti in rotolo con pretaglio e nastrati

per sacchi lunghi fino a 2000 mm.

Gruppo avvolgitore automatico con dispositivi di nastratura fino a 4 piste

mt/min.

We

not provide only quality robots and automations but we also have 40+ years of experience in the market. We also have a team that works together in order to offer customized solutions for our all different types of customers. Each unit in our factory works together with the others in order to share ideas, experience and knowledge about our product range. This allows us to always have a better product and more efficient solutions. It is a great advantage, that allow us to stand out from many other competitors.

The Italian manufacturer Bausano presents for the first time to an international audience its updated range of lines for extruding pipes, including RTPs. Together it shows its patent pending innovative barrel induction heating system

At the K exhibition (booth B70, hall 16), Bausanoleading international player in the design and production of customised extrusion lines for the processing of plastic materials - presents for the first time to an international audience the updated range of extrusion lines dedicated to the production of pipes,

also including reinforced thermoplastic pipes (RTP). In addition, the fair is considered an important opportunity to discover the innovative barrel induction heating system, patent pending.

The reinforced thermoplastic pipes are characterised by a multilayer structure composed of high-performance materials reinforced with synthetic fibres, in order to obtain high resistance to high pressure fluctuations. This construction makes them ideal for a wide range of applications: from high-pressure water supply to the collection and transportation of mixtures in the upstream petrol and gas industry where RTPs are replacing the conventionally used steel pipes.

On the one hand, steel has long been considered a good compromise

for gas pipelines, due to factors such as cost, availability and workability, robustness and reliability. On the other hand, it has significant limitations, mainly including corrosion. In addition, the installation of steel pipelines involves significant costs due to the weight and limited length of each section. Despite the availability of alternative materials, such as polyamide and polyethylene, these kinds of pipes have a reduced capacity to work at high pressure. RTPs are thereby the best alternative when considering their robustness, their resistance to corrosion and their quality-price ratio. In this regard, the main advantages also include their flexibility, which enables coils of up to 400 m to be achieved, significantly facilitating transportation and installation.

E-GO

Bausano new pipe extrusion lines, based on the E-GO family, are the result of consolidated expertise and from constant

Section of a reinforced thermoplastic pipe

research into increasingly high-perfor mance technologies and solutions, in various fields of application. Moreover, these systems are characterised by ad hoc designed heads and a wide range of downstream accessories, which enable production of pipes, including RTPs, with diameters from 110 to 400 mm. Every de tail is finalised by the Bausano technical team to meet customer requirements while reducing energy consumption.

Smart Energy System

In this regard, the Smart Energy System also stands out among the new features. In detail, this is an integrated thermoreg ulation system, patent pending, con sisting of: an extrusion barrel, induction coils, forced air-cooling, temperature

sensor and, lastly, PLC with dedicated software. In particular, the coil is wrapped in highly insulating materials to minimise heat loss from the barrel to the outside. Furthermore, thanks to its innovative in ternal design, the cooling airflow is chan nelled directly onto the plasticising barrel for faster cooling compared to resistive systems. The combination of these ele ments provides numerous benefits, in cluding uniform distribution of heat and a lower coil surface temperature, rapid heating up to 250°C and high precision temperature control, as a result of re duced thermal inertia.

A view of the Smart Energy System installed on a twin-screw extruder

A brief excursus of Gamma Meccanica on the evolution of its recycling lines, up to the latest solutions developed to recover materials that are often very difficult to treat and the model presented at the Düsseldorf fair

For the Italian company Gamma Meccanica, which designs and manufactures lines for the regeneration of plastic materials, the technological evolution began in 1987. Its technologies for regeneration are known for their high level of automation and energy efficiency. The recent Tandem and Tandem Plus lines have contributed to the growing success of the company on the market. GM Tandem lines allow to recycle heavily printed (100%), high humidity (up to 12%) and contaminated materials. The Tandem Plus line, thanks to the combination of a single-screw extruder with a twin-screw extruder and a special degassing chamber, improves the recycled material characteristics during the upcycling process, so it results ideal for the production of compounds for special applications.

The new line exhibited at K 2022

To improve the performance in terms of production, efficiency and quality of the final product, the company has studied a new design for its lines that is presented at K 2022 (booth C18, hall 9), where the model GM100 Compac (in the opening picture), the first manufactured on the basis of such a concept, is exhibited. The new series has an aesthetically homogeneous design, and the lines are characterized by a lower energy con-

sumption and a new compact layout that helps to save space. Amongst the various features, it is able to offer better performance thanks to a more efficient insulation designed for less heat dispersion and greater temperature control of the various areas. The production capacity of the GM100 Compac is about 500 kg/h, depending on the type of material to be recycled and processing conditions.

The line configuration is typical of GM Compac series: the feeding system is equipped with cutter-compactor and densifier, with Ecotronic system for power control. The material can be loaded with a conveyor belt, a roll feeder and dosing units.

The feeding screw is designed to transport and compact the material. It pushes the material (especially the low bulk density one) into the extrusion screw. The screw speed is automatically adjusted to keep constant the extruder production. An extruder (or two, in the case of

The headquarters of Gamma Meccanica in Bibbiano (Reggio Emilia, Italy)

“In recent years, our company has collected a whole series of suggestions, information and requests to create a new generation of machines with the aim of improving performance and their application on materials that are more difficult to regenerate”, stated Andrea Burini, vice president of Gamma Meccanica

Tandem models) is equipped with one or more degassing cham bers. At the end of the extruder, a screen changer supplied by one of Gamma Meccanica’s partners is installed. The pelletizing process is then performed with the cutting of the melted mate rial inside the TDA pelletizer designed by the company to guar antee the highest quality of the granules, but also to make a fast start/stop sequence and a rapid material change.

Once the fair will be finished, this line will be installed in the new laboratory centre that Gamma Meccanica is setting up to test the materials supplied by customers and to verify the quality of the processes. Therefore, even if the incidence of challenging plastics is increasing, Gamma Meccanica is working to solve the problem of their recovery and make the principle of the circular economy effective.

Committed to create a circular economy

“Our commitment is to tear more and more plastic from the waste-to-energy plants and recover as many materials as pos sible thanks to the latest technological solutions we offer. In

recent years, our company has collected a whole series of sug gestions, information and requests to create a new generation of machines with the aim of improving performance and their application on materials that are more difficult to regenerate”, Andrea Burini, vice president of Gamma Meccanica, commented giving some anticipation on the new lines. “If all plastic waste were diverted from landfills to recycling plants and if the most advanced technologies for their recovery were applied, it would be possible to recycle an additional quantity equal to over 5 mil lion tons per year of plastic waste with a reduction of about 7 million tons of CO2 emissions. Our experience and consolidat ed skills, combined with a high level of know-how, allow us to meet the demands of international markets and to propose tai lor-made solutions for each customer. We have many innova tions in store to unveil to the market over the next year, and we are sure that once again our commitment and our experience will be rewarded with the satisfaction of our customers all over the world”. www.gamma-meccanica.it

BELIEVE IN COLORS

Vanetti s.p.a., founded in 1971, produces Masterbatches, Biomasterbatches®, Additives, MasterbatchRecy® for plastic materials. With almost fifty years experience in the industry, Vanetti specific products are used to color and additivate all thermoplastic resins and new biopolymers. Passion for color, experience and customers service are the company’s strengths. New high-tech systems and attention to quality and eco-sustainable raw materials guarantee high performance in the use of the products.

A history much longer than half a century for a company that has risen as one of the most important manufacturers of welding and printing lines in Italy and abroad. This is Saldoflex, which considers the sharing in terms both technological and commercial as one of its strength points

“A

shared growth path with our customers. Our ambition is to be seen as a reliable partner, with whom we can establish a long-term business relationship. Someone you can trust. Someone who is technically prepared, able to provide advice and the best solution to the customerʼs needs, able to deal with and manage unexpected problems and needs”. This, in a nutshell, is the philosophy that has always driven the operational decision-making of Saldoflex, which was founded in 1961 and soon became a reference partner for the plastics processing industry.

A blend of innovative technologies and handcrafted skills

For more than 60 years, Saldoflex has supported its customers with innovative tailor-made solutions and high-quality products. For more than half a century, the Italian company has been one of the world leading manufacturers of high-tech automatic bag-making machines. Since 1961, under the well-known Filippini & Paganini brand name, the Flexo Division has been engineering and manufacturing stack-type and central drum flexographic printing machines. Its mechanical workshops, engi-

neering office and feedback from customers and market enable it to build, develop and constantly improve its product portfolio, keeping a high level of service excellence.

The last two years have been an important test bench for Saldoflex: the bubbling of the plastics processing equipment and machinery market, both nationally and especially internationally, has engaged and exceeded all company resources and production capacity. Increasingly sophisticated plants with high technological content, an increasingly demanding customer base in search of perfection, increasingly complex export and testing requirements: new challenges are won with new projects based on the rock-solid experience of the company, which for more than 60 years has been one of the world leaders in the design and construction of flexographic printing machines (rollto-roll and in-line to extrusion/sealing machine) and automatic bag-making machines for the production of bags and sacks (flat and on rolls).

Flexo at full speed

Over the past 12 months, three challenging projects have been launched within the Flexo Division.

All welding machines from Saldoflex can process reels made of LDPE, HDPE, LLDPE, PP, BOPP, coextruded PP and bioplastic film

A new line for printing, gusseting and embossing flat tubular film for the production of industrial FFS (Form, Fill and Seal) bags, used for packaging products such as plastic granules, fertilizers, salts etc. The complete line consists of a motorized EasyReel un winder for rolls with a diameter of up to 1500 mm, corona treat ment, a stack-type Flexol Gearless printing unit with a width of 1000 mm that can be configured from 4 to 8 colours and a printing speed of up to 250 m/min, a gusseting, embossing, mi cro-perforating, automatic film guiding and an automatic nonstop REVOmatic 1000-mm wide winder. This line has been deliv ered to an Italian processor.

A new printing unit, designed to work in perfect synchronism with a film extrusion line, for printing on industrial bags destined for the distribution and marketing of raw materials. The flexo printing press consists of a 6-colours Flexol Gearless printing unit with a width of 2200 mm, sleeve plates with quick change directly in the machine for printing repeat up to 1500 mm, car bon fibre pneumatic mandrels guaranteeing low inertia togeth er with high rigidity, simultaneous and parallel motorized feed of the printing cylinders inking with closed-chamber doctor blades and laser-engraved ceramic aniloxes, automatic ink viscosity ad justment and control system, automatic inking and washing sys tem, automatic film guiding, motorized transversal and longitu dinal register, controlled from operator touchscreen and video print inspection system. This line has been shipped to Spain. Last but not least, a new line for roll-to-roll printing on film or tubing for industrial packaging. The complete line consists of REVOmatic automatic non-stop unwinder, corona treatment, 8-colour stack-type SuperFlex ol Gearless printing unit with a width of 1600 mm and speeds up to 250 m/min, sleeve plates with quick change directly in the machine for printing repeat up to 1500 mm, carbon fibre pneumat ic mandrels guaranteeing low in ertia together with high rigidity, simultaneous and parallel motor ized feed of the printing cylinders inking with closed-chamber doc tor blades and laser-engraved ceramic aniloxes, automatic ink viscosity adjustment and con trol system, automatic inking and washing system, automat ic film guiding, motorized trans versal and longitudinal register controlled from operator touch

screen, video print inspection system and an automatic nonstop REVOmatic 1600-mm wide winder. This line has been de livered to Czech Republic.

The participation at the K 2022 trade fair

For the 2022 edition of the K show, in which Saldoflex (booth D30, hall 3) participated since the early Eighties, it has designed a unique, comprehensive and inclusive stand together with Elba, with whom the company has been collaborating for almost two years now. The joined participation at the German exhibi tion also aims at offering extra value to customers and visitors, through a much wider and more interesting range of products and solutions.

As it has been the case for the past 30 years, also this year the company is exhibiting two automatic welding machine lines in operation (with repeated demos during all days of the fair): a Roll-Flex DT 1350 1-lane, for the production of pre-cut and rollwrapped draw-tape trash bags, with the possibility of choosing between different types of film and sealing processes - bottom sealing (with or without gussets), star sealing or side sealing; a Modula M-2013 SV - Non-Stop with 6 lanes, for the automat ic production of bottom sealed bags collected with pins and block-notes bags.

All sealing lines from Saldoflex can process reels made of LDPE, HDPE, LLDPE, PP, BOPP, coextruded PP and bioplastic (com postable and biodegradable) film. The latter, by the way, is cer tainly nothing new for the company, which is amongst the first companies in the sector to have developed important experi ence and technical skills on the processing of such materials. Skills that have led to the creation of machinery with special features such as high process speed, minimal waste (an increas ingly important aspect for customers today), flexibility in contin uously changing production recipes, and fairly short setup and fine-tuning times.

Saldoflex offering includes Ready-4.0 systems, following a con solidated trend of equipping machines with systems and inter faces that allow the exchange of a large amount of data with the company management systems, according to the dictates of the fourth industrial revolution. The Industry 4.0 theme, in fact, has obviously also embraced the plastics processing sector, and the Italian company has adopted this new production methodolo gy, which is now increasingly demanded by the market.

A detail of a flexographic printing line

Multicavity

Look to the future together

At K 2022, Negri Bossi comes together with Nissei Plastic Industrial. The Italian manufacturer of injection moulding machines, in fact, is part of the Nissei Group, which took it over in 2020. Under the motto “A look to

the future”, the two companies are exhibiting their products in the same booth (B22, hall 15) along with the Roboline robots by Sytrama (in turn part of Negri Bossi).

At the fair in Düsseldorf, a new all-

electric machine for the European market is unveiled. In addition, an advanced system for processing PLA-based materials and a solution aimed at the automotive industry to meet the needs of electric mobility are also introduced. A complete line of machines is also proposed as the result of the Nissei Group’s experience, including models ranging from small tonnage machines for micro-moulding to large ones.

At the 2022 edition of the K show, which turns seventy this year, Negri Bossi and Nissei are also celebrating their 75th anniversary, having both been founded in 1947. As a group, the two companies to date have sold over 190 thousand units and are definitely aiming to 200 thousand. www.negribossi.com

Colines on the fair ground Bigger than ever

The Colines’ booth (A39, hall 16) at the 2022 edition of the K show is bigger than ever, with about 700 sqm. The Italian company is showcasing one of its ALLrollEX 3000mm 6-up of latest generation, the world-renowned extrusion line for stretch film production. The line is running daily and performing a very specific recipe developed in cooperation with Colines traditional partner for stretch film, ExxonMobil.

The ALLrollEX 3000mm is not the only machine that the manufacturer is showcasing on its huge booth. It is also presenting some very innovative solutions for mono-material (PE or PP) stand-up pouches production. The results were achieved thanks to the use of its modular in-line MDO (Machine Direction Orientation) system of latest generation.

“We can’t wait to meet all our valued customers and partners in such a captivating and prestigious event. We are confident that people will appreciate our efforts and will enjoy the show we will be putting on. We will be very happy to share with our visitors all our latest technical developments, including some revolutionary automation solutions such as our brand new “Mastermind” automation package. Our extrusion lines are getting smarter and smarter thanks to their dramatically improved user-friendliness, which makes it easier to get the most suitable film for our customers’ needs”, Anthony Michael Caprioli, Colines CEO and commercial director, declared in the imminence of the fair.

“We are looking forward to enjoying the new edition of the K show. It will be a great chance for us to show extremely

innovative solutions and share with our customers all the latest news and developments in extrusion, showing the pure scope of our potential”, added Gabriele Peccetti, Colines marketing and communication director and sales area manager. www.colines.it

Negri Bossi and Nissei at K 2022

An example of the Nova electric range by Negri Bossi

A Colines ALLrollEX plant

A new way to mould rubber

Acting upon the commercial development job already undertaken in the international arena, IMG is present at 2022 edition of the K fair with its own booth (C38, hall 13).

At the world leading rubber and plastic trade show, the company is exhibiting for the very first time its new model of injection moulding machine with fully electric power supply: the REM 300, with a clamping force of 3000 kN. The innovative level of this new IMM results from numerous elements that improve, compared to hybrid technology in terms of energy consumption, costs and environmental impact (absence of oil in the circuit), costs of maintenance and useful life of the machine. In addition, the machine electronics allows an extremely more precise monitoring of all the functions of the IMM and therefore a much higher level of performance in terms of mould quality check, control of the movement of the internal bodies of the machine, and measurement and setting of the working time.

This injection moulding machine also ensures a significant reduction in terms of energy consumption thanks to the introduction of a “plug and play” energy management system which uses electricity only when it is actually needed.

The REM 300 model is also equipped with new IoT (Internet of Things) devices such as vibrational sensors, IO-Link transducers and drivers with predictive diagnostic libraries for performance detection and control and for remote control. The new machine represents a highly innovative project for IMG, perfectly in line with its company policy, always attentive to progress and technological improvements to meet the high demands of its customers.

www.imgmacchine.it

A new recycling

Odour reduction of post-consumer polymers

One of the most critical aspects of post-consumer plastics recycling is the presence of unpleasant odours, to solve which Maris (booth B59, hall 16, at K 2022) has recently specifically developed an innovative extrusion process. Odorous contamination of plastics is usually of organic origin, the most common of which coming from food residues, or fuel.

The study was divided into two parts. The first concerned the development of an innovative extrusion process to abate HDPE odours from fuel tanksa work carried out by Maris.

The second part concerned the characterization of the samples to identify the best process conditions - a job carried out by the University of Eastern Piedmont, Italy. Thanks to the work and synergy of these two different experiences, it was possible to break down up to 98% of volatile and semivolatile organic compounds.

The extruder developed by Maris for this specific recycling process was equipped with a water injector and two different side degassing units. The contaminant reduction process was divided into two stages. During the first stage the polymer was melted using a very high thermal profile, with a subsequent degassing of the material through the first side degassing group. During the second phase, water was injected into the extruder by means of a pump and - after its mixing with the HDPE - the organic contaminants were degassed together with the water vapour, which acts as a stripping vector.

In order to identify the optimal process conditions, 13 experiments were performed.

The samples of each test were analysed by the University of Eastern Piedmont using Headspace Sampling and GCMS analysis. www.mariscorp.com

Maris

Innovation, reliability, sustainability

The fulcrum of the Bandera exhibition at K 2022 (booth C06/ C07, hall 17) is the innovative 9-layer Barrier Flex Nine line for the production of barrier film. The fully operational plant is installed directly on-site and makes different, absolutely innovative products, which are all presented to specialists of the industry during a series of scheduled demonstrations. For Bandera the challenge launched by an event as important as K 2022 is yet another occasion to add value to its manifesto of quality, developed around three key points. First of all, “innovation”, a true entrepreneurial and industrial matrix: yesterday a target, today a tangible reality. Research and development department, internal laboratories, taking part in the industry 4.0 discussions allow to identify answers to problem solving, that will go far behind of commercial requests of the reference market and regulations.

As for “reliability”, research and innovation remain abstract concepts without solidity, which is measurable not only in terms of economic data, but also with specific verification parameters, including market continuity, product credibility, service efficiency and customisation. Finally, “sustainability”, an essential topic that gives rise to a pathway with continuity solutions in line with circular economy, from recycling to upcycling along with an array of concrete and certified company choices: from project design

A detail of a blown film extrusion line by Bandera

to engineering, the analysis of new contexts and answers in terms of prevention and finished product management, with no compromise. www.luigibandera.com

SUCCESSFUL SOLUTIONS

The Sirio S-Plus stacktype machine for flexographic printing

Novelties from BFM

All about plastic printing

Innovations related to energy saving and printing inline of water-based inks characterize the Sirio S-Plus stack-type machine for flexographic printing proposed by BFM at K 2022 (booth C05, hall 17), through which passes also the commitment of the Italian company to global sustainability.

Sirio S-Plus is a high performance 8-colour machine which guarantees excellent results and high-quality printing on different materials, from plastic to paper, destined for a number of applications in the flexible packaging of food, clothes and pharmaceutical goods etc. Particularly versatile, it allows to print plastic materials such as HDPE, LDPE, PP, PET, and biobased polymers, too.

All the technological innovations of the machine are illustrated at the German fair, including high-print quality, energy saving, efficiency and productivity thanks to easy and precise job changes, high flexibility of use, and a compact layout and modern design. Like all BFM machines, Sirio S-Plus model is also suitable for being connected to the network and allows

to take advantage from benefits and resources allocated by the Italian Government Industry 4.0 Plan for the digital transformation of companies.

The Sirio S-Plus is equipped with Easygear and automatic print presetting, thanks to which job changes can be carried in total safety. Amongst the novelties there is also the new 22-inch graphic interface, which results simple and intuitive, as well as complete for the management of all the machine functions.

Still with regard to the stack-type machines, BFM presents a line for industrial bags (FFS) completed with printing, gusseting and embossing systems for the tubular film. The industrial bags consist in a flat tube with embossed area and side gussets normally used for the packaging of granules of plastic materials, fertilizers, salts, bulk goods etc.

This line features a motorized unwinder suitable for reels with a maximum diameter of 1500 mm, a 4-colour flexographic printer (which can also have 2 or 6 colours, according to the customer needs), a width of 800 mm, gusset unit and embosser, and W 400 automatic winder with a width of 800 mm. It can also be equipped with corona treatment (refreshing or total) and micro-perforator.

The Italian company proposes also the 8-colour Marte gearless flexographic printing machine with central drum, developed in cooperation with Bosch Rexroth. This machine is available in different printing widths, standard printing lengths from 350 to 800 mm (or 1200 mm in the Plus version), and a production speed up to 400 metres per minute. www.bfm.it

A BFM line for industrial bags (FFS)

Everything is evolving.

Global approach, Italian roots

Subject-matter expertise, competence and innovation are the pillars that have guided the Moretto business for over 40 years in pursuing a fundamental goal: to satisfy customer requests, to exceed expectations, to be the ideal partner in the supply of automations for the plastics processing industry

Passion, ideas, values and people character ize Moretto story. It is synonymous with unique, high-performance systems that last over time. A story of reliability and experience. Who chooses Moretto can rely not only on product quality and process optimization, but on a partner who puts the customer and his needs at the first place; able to provide a quick, detailed and concrete response that allows to increase the value and obtain tangible results in terms of technology, productivity and energy saving. A success that stands out for its ability to constantly innovate by taking up the challenges of our time.

An approach that distinguishes also the K fair, the leading event for the plastics and rubber industry that continues to attract ex hibitors and visitors from all over the world. The 2022 edition themes - digitization, climate change and circular economy - are familiar to Moretto and guide the company in providing specific solutions for the smart factory that ensure energy consumption containment and able to process not only virgin raw material, but also PIR and PCR ones.

Technology made in Italy

The Italian company is recognized all over the world for the qual ity and reliability of its solutions. Products conceived, designed, developed, assembled, tested and improved in the Italian head quarters with obsessive attention to detail. “To be competitive on the market, it is not sufficient to be a good manufacturer, it

becomes essential to supply functional, flexible, cost-effective and environmentally friendly equipment that offer the operator a user-friendly experience. What moves our business activity is the certainty to offer a machine realized according to the cus tomer needs, involving him in the study of it. When a product is placed on the market, it must leave a mark”, says Renato Moret to, president of the company. To achieve this, it is necessary to invest in innovation, focusing on research and development of new technologies. Being in novative means providing more competitive solutions, being pioneer in the sector, raising a challenge every day. Moretto re sponds to this need with a dedicated R&D department with cut ting-edge tools and highly qualified personnel able to simulate processes and dynamics for the design of exclusive and custom ized solutions that anticipate market needs. 168 patents prove the company willingness to innovate with exclusive products that represent a must on the market.

Sustainability and energy saving precursors

Moretto has faced the issues of sustainability and energy saving for several years, when it was realized that, after raw materials, the second expense cost was energy. In the following years, the need to work in the direction of the circular economy was con solidated, in order to protect the planet and reuse plastic ma terials in several production cycles. From this point of view, the

Moretto’s

Through the OPC UA protocol, the Mowis software platform creates total connectivity amongst machines, processes, departments and plants, and makes the management of complex systems easy

Amongst the solutions dedicated to recycling, Moretto will present at K 2022 the new granulators of the GMK series, which ensure uniform and constant granulation minimizing the dust formation

market is very demanding in terms of skills and services and the processors are more and more looking for advanced equipment able to work not only with virgin materials but also with high per centage of recycled ones. Global regulations and events push for an increase of use of these materials and their enhancement. It is therefore essential to provide solutions that make possible to reduce the use of exhaustible resources and flexible solu tions for the recovery of recycled material. These needs guided Moretto to undertake a research and design project that leads to the development of countless solutions that contribute to the correct and effective treatment of the recycled material at every stage of the recovery process. “Our customers are more and more sensitive to the environmental issue. To satisfy their competitive and sustainable needs it is essential to invest in re search to develop new technologies that guarantee efficient and low energy consumption production processes”, says the mar keting manager Silvia Moretto.

Connectivity that optimizes processes

Modern production plants are intelligent, flexible and da ta-driven. The amount of data generated that must be correct ly processed to support decisions and make processes even more efficient is enormous. Having the right equipment for data management becomes essential. Mowis is the software plat form developed by Moretto to supervise and manage the entire

production process. A modular and self-configurable tool, us able on-site or remotely, which, through the OPC UA protocol, creates total connectivity amongst machines, processes, de partments and plants, and makes the management of complex systems easy.

The service that makes the difference

Service, in Moretto business strategy, represents a real com mitment to customers. A strategic phase to which the compa ny dedicates high attention, optimizing the equipment use and performance involving specialized and constantly trained tech nical personnel. The company supports customers in every aspect related to the products management and technologi cal content. A service guaranteed worldwide according to 4.0 principles and reachable with a click. Automatic warehouses, software and online platforms facilitate remote assistance, re al-time monitoring of activities and the provision of timely inter ventions in case of need.

Moreover, a digital “identity card” is available for each machine.

By scanning a QR code, it makes available a detailed informative sheet. Important information for the operator that allows him to make the best use of the instrument, order any spare parts in real time, find answers to any operational doubts through the dedicated FAQ section.

Technology, sustainability and connectivity will characterize the new Moretto products that will be exposed at the K fair, as the new dosing and feeding solutions for micro moulding and small productions available also for use in the clean room. Thanks to their compactness they can be installed stand alone or on the IMM. Amongst the solutions dedicated to recycling, Moretto will present the new granulators of the GMK series, which ensure uniform and constant granulation minimizing the dust forma tion. The small size structure allows it to be placed next to the processing machine, thus optimizing production spaces. The implementation of more compact solutions then permits to in crease production by reducing energy consumption and noise pollution. Amongst the novelties, there will be also the volumet ric dosing system DVM8, which ensures the maximum perfec tion of microdosing.

This is just a small preview of what will be exhibited at the Moret to’s booth H56 / H66, in hall 11

The company operates in a very complicated business, both for the high level of innovation that characterizes the sector and for the well-known critical issues related to the massive use of plas tic products. In spite of this, the company has been able to iden tify a winning strategy developing solutions with a high techno logical content that contribute to the progress and optimization of processes in a sustainable way and respecting the environ ment. This has contributed to achieving a prominent position in the sector recognized all over the world.

A new concept of automation

A new concept of automation is the one proposed by Campetella Robotic Center, renowned Italian designer and producer of industrial robots and complex automations for the plastics injection moulding industry, this year celebrating its 125 th anniversary

Founded in 1897, Campetella proudly traces its success back to the passion that has always guided them and which, fuelled over time throughout five generations, now distinguishes the Italian company throughout the world.

“An international company with a family character”. This is how they describe themselves. Sure enough, their team is their true asset. A staff both heterogeneous and cohesive in sharing a cor porate culture that has always been oriented towards a constant search for technological innovation, capable of satisfying the most complex and demanding production needs, from palletiz ing to In-Mould Labelling (IML).

The Italian company offers a wide range of high-performance top-entry and side-entry robots, which stand for their extreme precision, speed and reliability. These are key features in the food-packaging world, a crucial industry to Campetella that, at K 2022 (booth C13, hall 12), will exhibit the most innovative in tegration of IML technology and stack-moulding automation for this application field. A technology that makes it possible to sat isfy the most complex market needs, as it doubles production while making it increasingly sustainable and reducing costs.

Respecting the environment thanks to innovative technologies

Sustainability is at the base of the Campetella corporate culture. How do they achieve it? A significant reduction in energy con sumption is certainly a winning strategy. The dynamic vacuum management system designed by Campe tella aims at reducing compressed air consumption up to 60%,

if compared to traditional gripping systems. The compressed air required to generate the vacuum is switched on and off dynami cally and automatically, in order for the vacuum to be generated only when the product is picked up, before being switched off until a minimum threshold is reached. Kers Technology is also applied by Campetella to achieve pow er saving. The particular architecture of the mutually connected drives allows for the recovery of the braking axles’ kinetic ener gy, which is therefore available for the axles in motion. Finally, through the Jog Over, Campetella optimizes robot cycles by re ducing the IMM speed and consumption without any impact on the overall cycle time.

Stack-moulding automation systems offer unquestionable advantages in high-productivity sectors as they optimize the company’s costs while respecting the environment.

The press tonnage is almost halved compared to tradi tional systems. This helps to considerably lower energy consumption and the relative CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, reducing their impact on global warm ing. Green economy is now a challenge we need to face and, in order to do it, we need to provide ourselves with highly efficient and sus tainable production systems.

Rendering of a robot from

Both at the Campetella and Sumitomo (SHI)

Demag’s booths at K 2022, visitors will have the opportunity to give a look at the new Modula W X-Series, core of a fully automated system managing the IML production of margarine tubs

More productivity in less space. This is the greatest benefit brought by the synchronized production of both containers and lids achievable thanks to the new Campetella automation systems.

Both at the Campetella and Sumitomo (SHI) Demag’s booths (D22, hall 15), visitors will have the opportunity to check out the new Modula W X-Series, core of a fully automated system man aging the IML production of margarine tubs. Born to fit IMMs up to 4500 kN clamping force, this high-speed side-entry ro bot boasts a peculiar and innovative “W” structure that allows it to operate on a 2-level stack mould, which is also specifically designed to double productivity. The Campetella product de velopment team has been focusing on the shared ever-grow ing need to increase the production systems’ efficiency in the food-packaging industry.

Minimizing footprint on the ground while maximizing productiv ity. This is what Campetella was able to achieve by creating this new Modula. Its main transversal axis, located on the upper side of the robot, makes it possible for the discharge conveyor belt to be placed at the bottom, thus ensuring a significant space op timization.

Once extracted from a 4 + 4 cavity mould, the tubs are picked by a Spin and stacked with the opening facing downwards, in order to ensure maximum hygiene. The robot is equipped with vertical feeders for 5-sided labels, featured by efficient servomotors and designed to exploit the space in the vertical direction. Its carbon fibre arms reduce vibrations, thus ensuring excellent label posi tioning, while an integrated vision inspection system safeguards the perfect quality of the stacked tubs.

At the KraussMaffei booth (C24-D24, hall 15), Campetella will show off its Spin, in charge of assembling and palletizing fold able fruit and vegetable plastic crates. Powerful and sturdy, this SCARA (Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm) is an industrial robot famous for replicating the human arm motion.

Equipped with three rotary axes (shoulder, elbow, wrist) and a linear axis for vertical movements, its high dexterity makes it ideal for fast palletizing and pick & place operations.

Its strength lies in the pecu liar architecture of the ver tical axis. The Z-axis move ment is possible thanks to the sliding of the entire arm along the robust supporting column of the robot, allowing a vertical stroke of over 3 me tres with payload up to 50 kg. This feature makes it a valid and - in many ways superioralternative to industrial ro bots as far as palletizing op erations are concerned, es

pecially in terms of both footprint and easy programming.

New models for the GS2 X-Series

Last but not least, Toyo (booth B77, hall 13) will host the Cam petella best-seller GS2 X-Series, renowned all over the world for its quick and sharp movements. An uncompromising model for ultra-fast take-out applications, specifically designed for the food-packaging industry. Ultra-performing servo-motors com bined with innovative construction technologies and materi als typical of the aerospace industry, such as carbon fibre and light alloys, ensure record-breaking acceleration and speed, for operating cycle times up to 2.5 seconds. Designed to fit medi um-sized tonnage IMMs, it boasts highly optimized structures gained through the most advanced Finite Element Method (FEM) techniques, resulting in low vibrations for the highest reliability. The GS2 X-Series is now available also in the new GS2W and GS3W models, recently launched by Campetella to perform stack-moulding applications. Entirely made of carbon fibre, from the double vertical axis to the two-profile extraction beam, be sides being extremely elegant, they stand out for their side-en try performance in a top-entry size, in terms of both costs and footprint on the ground.

From 3D printed parts to coiling machinery

The Campetella products have always stood out for their ele gance and lightweight design. This ranges from carbon fibre, wherever possible, to additive manufacturing of hundreds of components overnight in a much cleaner and faster process than traditional CNC production. When 3D printed in PA12 (pol yamide 12), such parts are much lighter than metal equivalents, thus enabling robots to work faster and vibration-free. Wherever possible, Campetella is replacing pneumatic actuators in favour of servo-electric drives by Kollmorgen, the worldwide leader for the production of servomotors. By doing so, Campetella aims at reducing CO2 emissions while increasing reliability and efficiency. The company has also a long historical experience in coiling ma chinery for 25-50 mm diameter extruded irrigation pipes and water hoses, a field that has recently shown an explosive growth in all industrialized countries worldwide. Although coilers be long to the extrusion world, the downstream automation and the related know-how are the same, making it easier to create modular systems to be used for a number of different industries. With a wide range of All-In-One robotic solutions designed to meet the most demanding production needs, and a global part ner network currently widespread across 32 countries and ev er-expanding, Campetella provides its customers with a com plete package of services, from design to after-sales assistance, guiding them through each step of their automation process with passion and expertise.

A young company, Break Machinery, looks at the future whishing to make it greener and greener. To this scope develops innovative - revolutionarysystems for filtering plastics. Amongst them, DUO is launched at K 2022

The K trade fair in Düsseldorf has always been the main appointment for all operators of the plastics industry, and first and foremost for machinery manufacturers. The 2022 edition marks a turning point for Break Machinery (booth E6, hall 9): on this occasion, the Italian company presents not only its new company image, but also an innovative new product that, according to the company, will revolutionise the world of plastics filtering. A passion for plastics processing, a desire for innovation and a wish for a more sustainable future are the company founding values. Break was born in 2019 from an insight of the Pegoraro family, who, since the early Seventies, has dedicated itself to the collection and regeneration of plastic waste with a genuine pioneering spirit, acquiring over the years an expertise of excellence in the recycling and moulding of regenerated plastic materials. This

gives concrete form to the concept of circular economy and environmental sustainability, values that have continued to inspire the group entrepreneurial activity over time.

On the strength of this imprinting and of the expertise acquired by the group in the sector of plastic waste regeneration and its use in moulding processes, Break has developed an initial polymer-oriented approach, with a marked focus on obtaining regenerated polymer of the highest quality standard.

A natural propensity for improvement has always characterised the Pegoraro family business attitude. This generated a drive towards the study, design and development of new products and innovative technologies, with the aim of increasingly improving the quality and efficiency of the filtration process, extending the area of intervention to the mechanical part of the plants.

This established a new machinery-oriented approach, which today gives its name to the new brand. Knowledge of polymers and skills in the mechanical field put the company to in the position to develop high quality machines, capable of adding value to the processing of plastic materials: Break Machinery perfectly represents this renewed corporate identity.

The main components of Break DUO

Figure 1 - The operation principle of the Break DUO system

The company aims to achieve the highest standards in the field of filtration, establishing itself as a reference point for regenera tors and compounders in the industry. Break’s great attention to environmental sustainability is also visible in its new corporate colour: orange makes way for green, more in tune with the com pany values. However, it is not just a change of colour: for Break, being green means strongly believing in the importance of the circular economy and recycling, having respect for the environ ment, and creating products that contribute to preserving it.

The new EU Ecodesign Regulation 2019/1781 came into force on the 1st of July 2021: Break further confirms its commitment to its values by equipping all machinery with energy-efficient mo tors, which have 20% lower dispersions than conventional mo tors. This improves the eco-friendliness of Break filter changers, while still maintaining high performance levels.

After Break WP, the first screenchanger presented by the com pany, met with great success on the national and internation al markets, Break research and development team engineered new filtration technologies that led to the design of Break DUO (in the opening picture), a newly conceived screenchanger based on an innovative filtering system.

This machine, the result of continuous research for process im provement, has been extensively field-tested at Break produc tion lines with excellent results, in terms of both productivity and filtering capacity. It is officially launched at K 2022.

The machinery offer is complemented by an extensive stock of components and a production of laser filters - a central element in the operation of the filter changer. The range includes filters of different sizes, with filtration level from 60 to 400 microns. In ad dition to standard products, customisation products based on specific customer requirements are also possible.

Break DUO, a step forward in the world of filtration

The three cornerstones that come together, in perfect synergy, in the Break DUO filter changer are:

• high filtering efficiency;

• constant pressure operation;

• minimum rejection.

Break DUO presents a double filter system that perfectly com bines maximum productivity with high end-product quality. The new patented rotating scraper disc is capable of remov ing multiple types of contamination (paper, wood, copper, al uminium etc.).

It is characterised by an innovative geometry with interchange able blades placed on both sides (3+3) of the scraper disc, which allow contamination to be simultaneously removed from two

different opposing filtering surfaces, and conveyed to the cen tre to be ejected. The ejection system operates via a single inde pendently rotating discharge screw located in the centre of the scraper disc.

The operating modes of the discharge screw and the scraper disc are adjustable according to requirements: this allows for a significant reduction in rejects and continuous operation, main taining constant pressure and maximising production. With a view to optimising working time, filter replacement becomes more flexible and faster: there is no need to remove machine parts such as breakers or the discharge screw. Filter opening, cleaning and replacement time is therefore extremely reduced. The outcome is a number of advantages in terms of productiv ity, labour time and cost savings. Break DUO is suitable for pro cessing many types of plastics: PP, LDPE, HDPE, PS, ABS etc. The machine is equipped with an electric panel and sensors, which allow total control of the various functions and ensure an opti mal management.

Principle of operation

The melted plastic material (step 1 in figure 1) is conveyed into the filtration chamber (2) and passes through two laser filters (3) opposed to each other. Between the two filters is a scraper disc (4) with interchangeable blades, which rotates to remove the contamination deposited on the filters, channelling it into the disc itself (5).

The centre of the scraper disc is in communication with an inde pendent discharge screw (6) that expels the contaminated materi al. The melted plastic material filtered (7) from the two filters then re-joins the outlet channel (8) to pass on to the next process. Break Machinery offers the possibility of carrying out filtra tion tests with the customer’s own material at its regeneration lines. www.breakmachinery.com

The production facility in Mazzano (Brescia)

BOOST YOUR EXTRUSION

To achieve perfection and continuous improvement, Tecnomatic chooses maximum specialization and concentrates its efforts on the development of

extrusion lines for the production of polyolefin pipes with diameter up to 3 000 mm. Technical knowledge, constant research and great passion allow Tecnomatic to offer

high-performance solutions fulfilling all possible customer requirements since 1977.

BY LUCA MEI

The last two years have brought a steady stream of challenges for entrepreneurs, and others besides.

Among their other effects, the pandemic and public health emergency, followed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, creating one of the most complex geopolitical scenarios since the end of World War II, have triggered a devastating economic crisis for the whole world. This is manifesting itself in raw material shortages in all manufacturing sectors and an increase in energy prices, which is having tragic repercussions on companies and families alike. But “the darker it is, the better you see the stars”, the saying goes, and in the same way, the tougher times get, the more valuable any acts of resistance and courage become. In recent months, numerous companies have managed to hold out and even exploit the crisis to do what, in normal times, they seemed unable to do, namely, innovate and invest vigorously.

A rendering of the planned new Mast headquarters

The editorial staff of the magazine MacPlas has monitored and documented one of these virtuous examples. We are talking

about Mast (booth E48, hall 11, at K 2022), a company that epitomises small and medium-sized Italian entrepreneurship that, precisely because of its size, is more exposed to the effects of crises, but also flexible enough to adapt to and overcome difficulties. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the company, led by brothers Carlo and Marco Arioli, has almost always worked at full pace, and without reducing its working hours much, since working from home does not really lend itself to the company operations, and the orders kept on coming in. Now, moreover, several long-planned and important investments are finally coming to fruition. These, in particular, are allowing to company to take heart and look beyond the crisis; moreover, being medium- to long-term structural investments, they will help Mast keep up with the progress of ecological transition. In recent months, the company whole approach has caught our attention, leading us to follow it closely. In this way, we have established a relationship of close collaboration with the company and, together with Carlo Arioli, started to record the story of its evolution. Here, through his answers to some of our questions, we take a look at Mast most recent developments.

“The project has already received all the necessary authorisations from the various bodies concerned. It is a rather complex

Letʼs start with the investment plan aimed at modernising the company. How are the plans to build a new Mast headquarters coming along?

In this interview Carlo Arioli, owner of Mast with his brother Marco, tells about the company recent investments in view of the now imminent construction of its new headquarters

project, and we are now in the last stage of enlisting the com panies that will provide us with specific supplies. The construc tion phase of the project is scheduled to get under way by the end of 2022”.

Will the new premises, designed to cater for modern manufacturing processes and production needs, be built using construction solutions also designed to make it sustainable and reduce its environmental impact, in line with modern trends in industrial building?

“Absolutely! We are familiar with and fully support this new ori entation, which we are also seeing in our production sector, to wards greater awareness of the environment and lower ener gy consumption. Right from the very first, preliminary stages, the project for our new headquarters has been guided by the need to pay attention not only to cutting energy consumption, which is now recognised as a fundamental strategic element in business development, but also to the need to preserve envi ronmental setting and landscape that the building will become part of.

Milan-based architects Arcoquattro Architettura have designed a facility that, despite being created to host production oper ations, will integrate its buildings and external spaces into the surrounding natural environment thanks to several architectural and landscaping solutions. The terraces with flower boxes and greenery at the front of the building along the road, as well as the “green roof” on the part of the building that houses the offic es, echo the natural elements of the landscape and at the same time provide natural shade, screening out some of the sunlight in the summer, as well as creating a suitable habitat for bees and other pollinators, and for local birdlife, all so important for the preservation of biodiversity. Large north-facing windows on the shed roof of the production department will ensure plenty of natural light and ventilation, and these, together with ambient light detection sensors, will cut energy consumption considerably. An additional measure to boost sustainability will be the installation of a photovoltaic sys tem on the roof, which, being able to provide over 130 kWp, will also significantly contribute to reducing the company’s energy consumption. A system for recycling rainwater has also been de vised; this consists of a number of pipes and filters that will allow rainwater to be collected and stored in special tanks and then reused. Another aspect I would like to highlight, for the commu nity and social benefits it brings, is our decision, in agreement with the town council of Solbiate con Cagno (Como), to create a green area equipped for public use in front of our new headquar ters, rather than a parking lot. This area will be designed to incor porate and serve the existing cycle and pedestrian path that is already very popular with local people”.

In addition to the construction of new spaces, will your modernisation drive include the introduction of any new production machinery and the recruitment of new staff?

“We have an investment plan for new machin ery that was launched some time ago. Our most recent investments concern a tangential grinding machine and a machining centre to improve the quality of co-rotating screws and the relative barrels. The department where we carry out drilling of single-hole and dou ble-hole barrels has just undergone a deep retrofit and we are currently modernising our external grinding department. For some time now, we have been offering our customers a maintenance service for co-rotating screw units; in this regard we are preparing a special machine tool able to disassemble and reassemble these screws, which end users often find diffi cult to manage. Obviously, all this is accompanied by a recruit ment programme, first of all to increase our workforce but also, in part, to address the natural turnover of the workforce; in other words, to replace staff who are due to retire in the coming years and look forward to devoting themselves to other things”.

Finally, a word about the current situation. What has been the impact, on your activities, of the two major problems affecting the manufacturing industry right now, namely raw material shortages and rising costs, and soaring energy prices? Some companies say they may soon be in a position where they can no longer fill the acquired orders, as they risk becoming unable to produce anything at all. Is the situation really that dire?

“The current situation is absolutely unprecedented. In the last month of 2021 and the first months of 2022, we saw a signif icant increase in orders, which in theory should be enough to get us quickly back to pre-Covid levels; at the same time, how ever, we are having to reckon with the lack of raw materials; our purchasing department is finding it difficult to meet our needs, whatever they are. And all this is happening against the backdrop of price in creases that, with weekly variations, are reach ing 70% or more in some cases. The situation this creates is one where you have a healthy or der book, but find it impossible to meet the re quired deadlines”. www.mastsrl.it

Screws for a counterrotating twin-screw extruder. Mast is a typical advanced subcontractor and therefore does not manufacture components under its own brand name

Carlo Arioli, next to a machine in the production department

The corona treatment made in Italy

Bikappa Rotary is the corona treatment system designed to be installed on highperformance extruders or flexographic presses in line with extruders

An Italian manufacturer of corona and plasma surface treatment systems, Ferrarini & Benelli attends the K 2022 trade fair (booth G18, hall 10) exhibiting a vast range of products. The threephase digital Evo Smart generator, with HMI touch-screen display and intuitive interface, is the main novelty in the field of corona treatment. Evo Smart achieves the power needed to treat every substrate, at the highest line speeds. The navigation system of the generator is user-friendly and multilingual, allowing immediate management of all the main working parameters and real-time monitoring of production data from any device

(PC, laptop, tablet and smartphone).

In addition, the system makes it possible to store events on SD card for downloading to a PC even via USB stick and to look up instruction manuals directly from the display.

The Evo Smart generator can be connected to the FB Cloud platform to receive technical assistance with remote monitoring and diagnostics, view the real-time data dashboard and process and download reports and analyses of production data. Ferrarini & Benelli engineers can thus monitor from Italy the main parameters of a generator installed anywhere in the world and provide online support and useful advice to operators.

Bikappa Rotary is the double-sided treatment system (also available in the one-sided version), designed to be installed on high-performance extruders or flexographic presses in line with extruders. This treatment system, coming in different models, is equipped with: multiple discharge electrodes in aluminium or stainless steel, with sectors (or segments) of different lengths allowing zoned corona treatment; discharge rollers with silicone sleeve or vulcanised sleeve

coating. The rotating opening of the rollers eases film threading and access to the electrode-insulators assembly. Polimetal is the universal corona treatment system suitable for any material, such as plastics and metallised films, aluminium foil, plastic-coated paper and laminates. The system comes in four different models, each designed for specific production needs, equipped with ceramic electrodes and ceramic-coated discharge roller.

Knowing the surface tension of a surface is important to check whether a substrate is suitable for printing, coating or gluing and to evaluate the effects of corona treatment. At K 2022 Ferrarini & Benelli will be exhibiting a range of solutions designed for these tasks: Dyne Test Inks, Dyne Test Pens and Corona Markers. Dyne Test Inks are liquid solutions used to check accurately the adhesion of a liquid to a plastic surface and the effects of corona treatment.

Dyne Test Pens are used for quickly checking if a substrate has been surface treated. Corona Markers highlight, owing to an ink which remains visible on the surface, the corona treated areas. www.ferben.com

55 years of experience in the technology of plastic powders mixing

Another important milestone for Plas Mec (booth A40, hall 9, at K 2022) has been achieved: 55 years from the foundation of the company, confirming the Italian leadership worldwide in manufacturing of mixing equipment and plants for plastics powders. The company manufactures equipment and accessories for the mixing of plastic materials (PVC, PE, PP, ABS), technical and special polymers (TPE, PA, PC, PU, PET, PTFE, and others), powder coatings resins, wood-plastics composites, masterbatches, additives, pigments, thermoplastic rubber etc. Plas Mec manufacturing range comprises mainly the following plants. Combimix HC is the combination of the TRM high-speed mixer and the HEC high efficiency cooler, resulting the ideal solution for any technical mixing requirement in the field of PVC or WPC dry blend production. A very high output can be achieved thanks to the optimized design of the TRM high-speed mixer and the latest technologies of thermofluid dynamic engineering of the high-efficiency cooler type HEC. Combimix HC versions span from 200/800 to 2500/8500 litres and a high productivity and reliability of this combination of equipment can be achieved thanks to a large number of accessories related to the type of production and the needs of the customers. Furthermore, TRR Container Mixer is the ideal alternative to conventional turbomixer for masterbatches, pigments, engineering polymers, powder coatings preparation, when production conditions require a high degree of versatility and a wide range of different recipes to be mixed with the same machine. The container mixer can be built as High Power for the application where high intensity mixing is required and there is a need of significant temperature increase of the mixture. Several improvements have been introduced in the last years to get a better performance and a better user friendliness. All the equipment can be designed and built to be compliant with the Atex directives, following the requirements of the customers. The range of products is completed by all the accessories to load, transport, weigh and store the powders. A complete automation to control the process offers the customer a solution and a fully controlled mixing system also thanks to the full remote access to the plant, for diagnostic, support and assistance.

High technical skills in the assembly machines and injection moulds

Since its foundation in 1967, Gefit (booth A64, hall 13, at K 2022) has been constantly investing to expand its technical skills and give life to innovative projects, thus consolidating its position in the international market. The company has established itself as a reference reality for the automation industry, for the supply of injection moulds for thermoplastics and of assembly machines with cutting-edge design, equipped with the most advanced hardware and software systems.

Besides the two Italian sites, in Alessandria (headquarters and automation) and in Fubine Monferrato (moulds and assembly), Gefit Group includes four factories located in USA, China, India and Hungary, as well as two sales and service offices in Moscow and Shanghai. In addition, the newly established Gefit Mexico Engineering, located in Monterrey, has become the seventh production unit of the group, that today counts 400 employees worldwide.

The Moulds & Assembly Division addresses the food, cosmetics, pharmaceutical and medical sectors. It is the only company that combines the production of moulds for thermoplastics and of assembly cells with high output rates and extreme precision. This makes of it a real partner for its customers, rather than a simple machinery supplier.

In the last two years, Gefit has expanded its offer developing and enriching its range of products. It goes from the design and manufacturing of multicavity moulds for production of test tubes, disposable vials and various laboratory articles, to assembly lines that meet all the requirements to work in

A recent Gefit mould for producing pipettes

controlled medical environments or in clean rooms, complying with the strict GMP standards, suitable for achieving high production rates and equipped with “energy saving” devices.

Particularly, the new generation of injection moulds have been engineered so as to significantly reduce the cycle time and to be highly productive. Gefit has also carried out studies aimed at creating moulds fit to produce thin walls items, which provide a substantial saving in terms of quantity for the plastic material use, as well as being more easily disposed. Amongst the moulds designed and manufactured in the 2022 second quarter there are, for example, two 64 and 32 cavity moulds for the production of 200 and 1000 microlitres PP pipettes for laboratory, with cycle times respectively of 6 and 7.5 seconds.

An example of mixing plant built with Plas Mec machines and equipment

Automation for every need

Many applications of Star Automation Europe product range are on display at the company booth (H74, hall 11) at the K 2022 show.

An XW-1000VIP cartesian robot is displayed on a Shibaura EC180SX38A injection moulding machine. It is a preview of the new XW-VIP cartesian robot series, which soon will replace the XW-VI series as the main product in the company range. The main novelty of the new series is certainly the brand-new servo-head, which integrates for the first time three servo-motorised rotation axes in only one accessory at the end of the vertical arm. This allows transforming a three-axes cartesian robot into a six-axes machine to attain versatility and fluid movements. The robot extract eight PP syringe barrels from a Ruhla mould. The Stec-520B controller features the optimization of some functionalities for the sake of user-friendliness and safety, as well as the introduction of several novelties, such as smoothing function

for the optimization of the movement trajectory, automatic speed self-change in the proximity of the target position for a better positioning precision, and QR code reading function which allows the operators to access help menus, instruction manuals and other valuable documentation. Moreover, in the PCS software for the remote maintenance of the robot, the 3D simulator function of the robot movements is now a standard feature.

The company booth also displays a XW1200VI robot managed by a Stec-620A controller, characterised by a completely reviewed and renewed operative system, particularly suitable for vision system applications. The robot is positioned over a pool table with 12 balls in random positions, which it detects through a camera and stacks in different jigs according to their colour. The third, and last, robot at the booth is an Es-1200II model, operating together with the company M-70IVSII pallet changer, for

Automatic electric planetary machines

palletising

ladle rests on trays; once full, the trays are moved away by the robot. Eins components are also on display at the Star Automation Europe booth, in particular tool changers usable on all cartesian and six-axes robots. An automation cell with a Fanuc LR Mate 200iD robot handles four different EOAT (one with magnetic gripper, one with suction cup with sponge, one with threefinger gripper, one with pad-in-pad system) as examples of the applications of Eins products.

Beyond the Star Automation Europe booth, three XW-1000VI robots are working on three different injection moulding machines (EC75SX3, EX180SX3 and EC230SX3) at the booth of Shibaura Machine Europe, while a ZXW-1600VI robot is working on an eKW85pi injection moulding machine at the BMB booth. www.star-europe.com

Dustless cut and chamfer of plastics pipes

One of the crucial points in the extrusion line for plastic pipes it has always been the cutting machine. It could seem a very simple operation but guaranteeing a good cut and chamfer in a short time, with high quality, for short and long pieces, is not so easy. To solve this problem, the Italian company IPM (booth D58, hall 16, at the K show) has developed the new TPE automatic electric dustless planetary cutting machines, working in line with the extrusion plant for cutting plastic pipes with diameter from 15 to 200 mm at high production speed (1400 cut/h). Pipes enter into the machine frame and are fostered by rolls up to the universal clamps, composed by eight pressers with radial movement (no twist is exerted on the pipe), and positioned near the cutting and chamfering area, which lock and keep pipes tightly during the cutting. The functioning of the machine is only electrical and pneumatic, without hydraulic circuits and parts like electrical creeping contacts, subjected to natural wear, thus also eliminating frictions caused by creep and reducing natural wear of the internal mechanical components.

The “TAV” type carriage advancement allows to combine short and long pipes cut at speed and repeatability higher than a machine with simple motorized feed. Thanks to a position control, the speed variations of the extrusion line do not affect the accuracy of the cut.

The heart of the cutting group consists in a “satellite system”,

without any electric or hydraulic actuator inside the rotor. The radial movement of the tools is obtained by staggering the belts that control the movement of the rotor, reducing the maintenance required by the hydraulic system and the wear of the brushes and the tracks for the transmission of electrical power. Three groups on the rotor support the cutting and the chamfering tools and the contrast roller. The group supporting the chamfering tool is equipped with a “copy” system, allowing a perfectly centred and uniform chamfer even in case of pipe imperfections. In order to have a smooth and cleaned cut surface without noises, different tools are used (characterized by a particular profile which is highly resistant thanks to special heat treatments) according to the pipe material to be cut. www.ipm-italy.it

The pipes enter into the machine frame and are fostered by rolls up to the universal clamps, composed by eight pressers with radial movement, which lock the pipes during the cutting cycle and keep them tightly

The new, powered-up, robot previewed by Star Automation Europe at the K 2022 show

Cutting-edge calenders for PVC and rubber

Historic company founded in 1878, Rodolfo Comerio (boot B54, hall 16, at the K exhibition) is still today one of the main international companies operating in the design and manufacturing of calendering lines for processing PVC and rubber which are exported all over the world. Determination and perseverance in research and development pushed through for more than one century has brought Rodolfo Comerio to carry out increasingly challenging projects, achieving excellent results in terms of machine performance and quality.

Alongside the consistent activity of research and development, the company stands out also for the design of tailormade calendering lines, built according to customer needs - a service that has ensured it a leading role in the large network of international manufacturers of calendered PVC.

One of the last projects carried out has seen Rodolfo Comerio involved in the supply of two lines destined to the Asian emerging markets and the United States. F-shaped calenders with 5 rolls 2700mm wide, and equipped with the most advanced control systems to produce high-quality PVC films for many different applications, from pharmaceutical packaging to labels.

The Italian company has also designed two plants with some of the most innovative quality control systems - thickness gauges, defect detection and colour control devices - guaranteeing the customer a material of excellent quality and performances.

In addition, the two Rodolfo Comerio labelled lines also boast a powerful and innovative Artificial Intelligence system capable to identify - after correlating and comparing the process parameters with the data collected by the quality control instruments - the optimal conditions for product processing, aimed to obtain a very high-precision result.

Last but not least, to facilitate the machinery installation at customer facilities, the company has always provided a comprehensive assistance service for assembly and commissioning, both onsite, through high-skilled engineers, and remotely, thanks to a state-ofthe-art Rodolfo Comerio VPN Connecting System. www.comerio.it

The renewal of Exact granulator internal components

In pursue of shorter lead times

A Bergamo-based company specializing in the construction of systems for the granulation of plastic films, Exact (booth E36, hall 9, at K 2022) has recently made a small but big transformation of its machinery, replacing what constitutes its real “brain”, that is its electronic components (PLC, inverters, cards etc.). A “transplant” certainly not easy, but one that was necessary. “Since the outbreak of the pandemic, it was clear to manufacturing companies that the biggest problems would be those related to the procurement of materials and components. Although predicting that commonly available items would reach delivery times longer than one year, was almost impossible. These timelines are unsustainable for customers who need to thrive in a fast market such as that of the plastics industry, and it became clear, day after day, that, in addition to quality, the added value of a product would be represented by its delivery time”, explained Noris Mazzoleni, CEO of Exact.

“At the beginning of 2022, with a market returning to a markedly positive sign for us, we found ourselves having to propose delivery times of over a year: an almost unacceptable period for customers driven by an irrepressible desire to restart after about two years of downtime. We have therefore started a process of overhauling our machinery, building a platform that was not linked to a single supplier of electronic components but rather “open”, which would therefore allow us to turn to both one of our historical suppliers and new solid partners. It was not easy to carry out the study phase and, above all, the test phase of the new

platform in a short time, but thanks to the constant commitment and preparation of the Exact technicians, we succeeded. Now our customers can benefit from significantly shorter delivery times and we can guarantee them the non-exclusivity of our platform, in the sense that we can rely with confidence on more manufacturers of electronic components in order to allow for shorter delivery times or to avoid deadlock periods related to geographical position of the supplier itself, which, in the case of raw materials for electronic components, is often to be read as “China”, where forced stops due to the “zero Covid” policy are on the agenda”, added the CEO. “Customer feedback has been extremely positive and our greater ability to respond quickly to orders, which fortunately have begun to arrive in abundance, is the confirmation of the righteousness of our choice to conduct the internal audit pursued”, concluded Noris Mazzoleni. The change of electronic components has also led to a new touchscreen with larger internal dimensions and functionalities, such as direct access to Exact technical assistance, or the ability to view tutorials on the use and maintenance of the machine.

A system for granulating plastic film from Exact

One of the calenders recently made by Rodolfo Comerio

Born in Italy, grown

The new Dreno Covering line from

Plastic Technology Covering drainage pipes with PP geotextile

For almost 70 years, Baruffaldi Plastic Technology (booth C21, hall 17, at K 2022) has been designing and manufacturing customized machines for processing plastic profiles and has always stood out for its dynamism, flexibility and avant-garde nature. Together with the Primac brand, it has been designing downstream equipment for plastic pipes for over 30 years. In particular, one of the market niches in which it has specialized is that of drainage pipes, designing slotting machines, perforators, socket welding machines for corrugated pipes and automatic machines for covering drainage pipes with PP geotextile, named Dreno Covering. Dreno Covering is an automatic machine that can be used in and offline to cover perforated/slotted corrugated pipes with PP geotextile (TNT). The machine can process both single-wall rigid and doublewall flexible pipes with diameter from 50 to 200 mm. The TNT is wrapped around the pipe and welded continuously by means of an ultrasonic welding head, whose power is electronically managed according to the type of fabric and the process speed. On the Dreno Covering it is possible to place two coils of fabric, one for work and one in reserve to avoid machine stops during the automatic coil changeover. The variation in diameter does not require additional equipment, but only the change of the width of the fabric coil. The main advantage of using the PP geotextile fabric compared to the sock consists in the possibility to cover the pipe automatically, directly in the extrusion line. In addition, the TNT, thanks to its physical characteristics, is better than the sock because it does not deform (its fibres are dimensionally stable), has a higher tear resistance, has a greater resistance to acids and basic pH and consequently a longer life. Dreno Covering system can process any type of geotextile according to the customer requests and specific applications. During the restyling phase of the Dreno Covering, particular attention was paid to the production speed, which now easily reaches 30 m/ min, and the dimensions of the machine. The overall dimensions have been reduced thanks to the moving of the electrical cabinet at the entry point of the pipe and the optimization of the safety guards, improving the operator safety level. The final result is a compact, efficient, versatile machine able of obtaining a high-quality finished product at high speeds. www.baruffaldi.eu

A detail of the Dreno Covering line

Masterbatches for home compostable materials

Bright colours for more green on the blue planet

Sustainability is on everyone’s lips, and the Thuringian company Grafe (booth A63, hall 6, at K 2022) is also involved in the development of specific masterbatches for corresponding applications. “We have been working on the colouring of bio-based and home-compostable materials for some time now”, reports Lars Schulze, head of Colour Development and Material Sciences. “We were able to successfully establish the first projects on the market and commercialise them, gaining extensive experience and doing a lot of development work. We will continue to push forward the projects with a sustainable character”.

Home compostable products meet the highest standards of environmental protection, according to the company. For example, Grafe has successfully coloured coffee capsules in a very elaborate development project. “Given the strict guidelines according to which the masterbatches may only contain certain ingredients and the pigments can only be used in limited concentrations, this is quite a demanding task. Nevertheless, we succeeded in over-colouring the dark base material”, explains Schulze. In the end, the colours maroon, light grey, brilliant blue, blue-grey, petrol brilliant, olive brilliant, violet brilliant as well as beige and berry were used from Grafe’s Modalen range. The certification came into effect on August 14, 2020.

“We are currently working on PHBV projects”, Schulze adds. This is a home compostable, non-toxic, biocompatible plastic that is produced naturally by bacteria and offers a good alternative for many non-biodegradable, synthetic polymers. “Besides the difficulties of the biopolymers currently on offer, in terms of processing, inherent colour and temperature resistance, another major challenge is their colouring or over-colouring. Both the plastic base material and the additives should have as little impact on the environment as possible and be biodegradable, in order to achieve the certification goals”, explains the expert.

The specialists at Grafe are guided by EN 13432 for this purpose, which severely limits the pigment selection and dosage. “That is why very brilliant colours are the current challenge for our development team. But we also want to solve these in the future”, announces the head of Colour Development and Material Sciences and lists numerous applications, such as disposable articles and everyday product packaging. “We look forward to new project requests to continue contributing to more green on the blue planet”, concludes Lars Schulze. www.grafe.com

The German company Grafe is actively developing new masterbatches for home compostable materials

Gummiwerk Kraiburg celebrates its 75 th anniversary Into the future with competence and strong partnerships

The leading trade fair DKT IRC, which attracted a specialist audience to Nuremberg from June 27 to 30, is also one of the most important platforms for Gummiwerk Kraiburg when it comes to in-person networking and exchanging new ideas. The German company is constantly focusing on future topics and trends, and is reinventing itself and its portfolio again and again. As well as a wealth of expertise built up over time, strong partnerships are also essential for realizing innovative ideas and creating something new.

With this year’s trade fair slogan: “Future-proof: Tradition. Partnership. Innovation.”, Gummiwerk Kraiburg is focusing on these success factors, and is eager to shape the future together with its customers. With the same motto, the company also presented itself in its 75th anniversary year at the DKT in Nuremberg. The manufacturer utilizes its extensive knowledge and long-standing experience in developing, processing and refining elastomer compounds to cater to the big trends of the future: from mobility to renewable energies, to health and a better quality of life. The company places particular focus on cooperative partnerships and therefore invited visitors to its booth to be inspired by the latest solutions and high-end products. In addition to the existing wide range of compounds, Gummiwerk Kraiburg has a new, future-proof series of compounds for the drinking water sector due to amended rules and regulations. Furthermore, the company also offers certified, halogen-free flame-retardant compounds as well as heat conductive compounds for use in a wide range of applications. It also supplies Kraiburg LEP - a film protecting the rotor blades of wind turbines - a contribution to the longevity of wind turbines and thus to sustainable energy production. Furthermore, Gummiwerk Kraiburg develops compounds for use in applications in connection with the various aspects of hydrogen utilization.

The company’s appearance at the trade fair was topped off by the presentation of Peter Fietz, developer at Gummiwerk Kraiburg. As part of the lecture program at the rubber conference, he talked about the possibilities of surface modification of elastomers and showed various approaches for processing elastomer surfaces. www.kraiburg-rubber-compounds.com

Black rubber compounds by Gummiwerk Kraiburg

No need to change the temperature or prepare the machine

Based in Switzerland and exhibiting at K 2022 (booth C07, hall 13), Ultra System produces the last generation of purging compounds. The brand Ultra Plast is non-abrasive, without the needs of soaking time and it does not produce any smoke or bad smell. Each Ultra Plast purging compound has almost 20 different certifications (ISO, Reach, FDA among others, including the white room for medical applications).

The following case study demonstrates the effectiveness of one of the latest products developed by the Swiss company, Ultra Plast PET-CS2, in two different cases: colour change; purging from impurities. Ultra System very often faces cases where producers use an abrasive purging compound for the screw and not for the hot-runners (in any case, the company suggests never using an abrasive cleaning product for hot-runners). Being free of any abrasive components, Ultra Plast PET-CS2 can be used to clean the whole machine, rapidly and safely, and can be injected. Apart from this, the main advantage of Ultra Plast PET-CS2 is that no temperature change is needed, at least an adjusting of the back-pressure. Furthermore, there is no need of

machine preparation. When it is decided to change the colour, it is enough to stop the colour feeding and start the purging process. It is usually recommended to run a pre-purging operation to fade the existing colour, with the purpose to use less purging compound. When the colour is slightly faded, the right amount of Ultra Plast PET-CS2 is fed to clean the screw.

The amount is decided according to the dimension of the screw.

It is always suggested to clean the screw first to avoid impurities to enter in the delicate hot-runner system. When the screw is properly purged and Ultra Plast is losing the typical white colour of the purge, Ultra System suggests to process some quantity of virgin PET to check the quality of the purging.

After that, it is possible to purge the hotrunner system with the mould closed, by injecting Ultra Plast PET-CS2. It is important to verify that all the cavities are working. Otherwise, the cavities around the “broken one” will take more time to be completely cleaned. Adjusting the temperature is the solution. The recommended amount to purge the entire hot runner system is twice the weight of an injection moulded part. In conclusion, the first case took around

40 minutes for the whole process, only modifying the back-pressure. The diameter of the screw was 100 mm and around 15 kg were used to purge the entire system, including the hot-runners. This quantity can be reduced with a regular use of Ultra Plast PET-CS2.

The second case took around 15 minutes. The screw had a diameter of 55 mm and just over 1 kg of Ultra Plast PETCS2 was used to purge all the machine, without modifying any parameter.

Short time, reduced quantity of purging material, effectiveness, combined with the absence of temperature changes or machine preparation, make Ultra Plast PET-CS2 the reference for the purging of

The results of the purging process; the preforms moulded with Ultra Plast PET-CS2 are clearly visible

Purging

& CONGRESSES 2022

Austria

November 15-17

Vienna: Multilayer Flexible Packaging - AMI (www.ami.international/events)

Germany

November 7-9

Cologne: Waterproof Membranes - AMI (www.ami.international/events)

November 28-30

Cologne: Fire Resistance in Plastics - AMI (www.ami.international/events)

November 30- December 1st

Düsseldorf: Thermoplastic Elastomers & Silicone Elastomers World Summit - Smithers Rapra (www.smithers.com/events)

December 5-6

Berlin: Digital Print for Packaging - Smithers Rapra (www.smithers.com/events)

December 6-7

Berlin: European Bioplastics Conference - European Bioplastics (www.european-bioplastics.org)

December 6-7

Cologne: Thin Wall Packaging - AMI (www.ami.international/events)

December 13-14

Cologne: Recycling Flexible Packaging - AMI (www.ami.international/events)

Italy

November 8

Webinar: Technologies and Packaging MaterialsIstituto Italiano Imballaggio (www.istitutoimballaggio.org)

November 10

Cologno al serio (Bergamo): Injection moulds: preventive, scheduled and extraordinary maintenance - Plastinnova (www.plastinnova.it)

November 17

Cologno al serio (Bergamo): Methodology to test new moulds - Plastinnova (www.plastinnova.it)

November 24-25

Naples: API (Advances in the Packaging Industry) International Congress - Giflex (www.apicongress.it)

Singapore

November 16-17

Singapore: Chemical Recycling - Smithers Rapra (www.smithers.com/events)

Spain

November 1-4

Barcelona: Sustainability in Packaging - Smithers Rapra (www.smithers.com/events)

Thailand

December 6-7

Bangkok: Specialty Packaging Films - AMI (www.ami.international/events)

December 8-9

Bangkok: PVC Formulation - AMI (www.ami.international/events)

The Netherlands

December 14-15

Amsterdam: Plastics & Paper in Contact with Foodstuffs - Smithers Rapra (www.smithers.com/events)

United Kingdom

November 23-24

London: European PVC Industry Summit - ACI (www.wplgroup.com/aci/event)

United States

November 1-4

Raleigh (North Carolina): Fibre and Filament

Extrusion Fundamentals - Inda (www.inda.org/training)

November 8

Cleveland (Ohio): The Global Plastics Industry Seminar - AMI (www.ami.international/events)

November 30 - December 1st

New Orleans (Louisiana): Stretch & Shrink FilmAMI (www.ami.international/events)

December 14-15

San Diego (California): Medical Tubing & CathetersAMI (www.ami.international/events)

listed to take note of all possible postponements.

Sustainable proposals within the plastics industry

More and more brands and manufacturers are embracing the potential of biopolymers, and policy makers are increasingly streamlining their efforts to create frameworks that benefit the growth of sustainable bioindustries. Now it is the time to put bioplastics at the top of the agenda of a bio-based circular economy in Europe and beyond. Taking place on December 6-7 at the Maritim proArte Hotel Berlin

(Germany) and online, the 17th European Bioplastics Conference represents Europe’s leading business and discussion forum within the global bioplastics sector. The hybrid format of this year’s event will allow attendants to join either in person or comfortably log-in from home, offering unique networking opportunities.

The conference will focus on the latest innovations in bio-based and biodegradable plastics, the current political landscape, as well as environmental aspects, and opportunities for growth in the circular economy. Every year an impressive speaker line-up attracts around 400 senior private sector decision makers from across the bioplastics value chain, as well as policy makers, leading research institutes, NGOs and brand owners.

Furthermore, an excellent line-up of speakers will highlight the latest developments in the areas of bio-based and biodegradable materials and applications, bioplastics processing, end-of-life, sustainability and policy. In addition, the interactive conference format is complemented by a social evening, networking breaks throughout the event, a drinks reception, and a digital partnering tool which will boost the networking. Finally, up to 40 exhibitors will showcase their latest innovations, products and services. www.european-bioplastics.org

Discover the advantages of

fusion-free recovery system