Hosokawa Alpine has introduced a newly developed granulate intake unit for extruders. The innovation impresses with its simple handling, harmonises perfectly with other Alpine system components, and reliably prevents dust deposits. As a result, users benefit from greater process reliability and consistently high product quality.
Simple function with slide valve and metal separator The granulate intake unit links the dosing unit of a blown film line with the feed throat of the extruder. At Hosokawa Alpine, the granulate intake unit includes three fully integrated slide valves and a metal separator.
A first slide valve can be installed together with a metal separator at the customer’s request. It is located below the dosing unit and empties the metal separator. After the slide has been closed, the remaining granules run into the extruder. The magnetic bar drawer of the metal separator can then be taken out to remove any metal particles. The magnetic bar drawer itself consists of three encapsulated magnetic bars with highly efficient neodymium magnets. The second slide valve is a resin drain to discharge residual granules from the system.
The third slide is located before the extruder throat and can be operated manually or, on option, pneumatically via the ExVis process control from Hosokawa Alpine. When emptying the extruder screw, the slide valve is closed to interrupt the supply to the extruder. The extruder screw is thus emptied rapidly, and any loss of resin is minimised. This saves customers time, energy and material.
Easy handling and top film quality
The granulate intake unit is easy to operate and perfectly matched to the other components of an Alpine blown film line. “This means our customers only have one point of contact: Hosokawa Alpine. They receive the complete service and necessary spare parts directly from us,” explains Bernd Bayer, director R&D at Hosokawa Alpine.
Furthermore, the granulate intake unit makes a significant contribution to the quality of the film bubble. “No additional adapters are required for our new granulate intake unitso that the granules can pass through perfectly. This means that there are no dead areas where dust or angel hair could settle. As a result, there is no contamination of the film bubble,” continues Bayer.
Utilising synergies within the company: new resin dedusting system
To further improve film quality, Hosokawa Alpine is developing a dedicated system for resin dedusting. There is a need as a lot of dust and angel hair is produced during storage and transport of the resin until it finally reaches the extruder. Dust and angel hair may produce specks in the film and impair the optical quality of the film, thus it is a good idea to remove the dust from the granulate before it enters the dosing units of the extruders. Dedusting not only reduces contamination in the extruders, but also significantly improvesthe film quality.
Hosokawa Alpine’s new dust extractor is the result of a co operation with the other business segment of the Augsburg-based mechanical engineering company: Systems for powder and particle processing. “Benefitting from the know-how of our in-house powder experts, we have developed a product that not only offers high dedusting quality but is also suitable for granulate dedusting in other applications,” concludes Bayer.
