It's time to apply more science to the process of selecting the right kind of winder for your operation.

Raven will process barrier blown film for energy, industrial, environmental, construction, and agricultural markets on giant new Davis-Standard seven-layer line.

There won't be many blown-film lines running, but there is still much in the way of innovation going on in extrusion and compounding.

New technology to process nano blown films unveiled by Dow at Antec. Nano cast film, sheet advances too.

NPE is typically a competitive display of the biggest, most dramatic equipment machine builders can muster.

The four partners who started FlexTech Packaging Inc. in Cincinnati three years ago all came from high-profile jobs with big packaging companies like James River and Jefferson Smurfitt.

Davis-Standard, Pawcatuck, Conn., and NO.EL srl of Italy have signed an exclusive agreement to jointly supply inline coreless stretch-film systems.

Davis-Standard, Pawcatuck, Conn., and Gneuss, Matthews, N.C., have joined forces to supply a PET sheet line that requires no material predrying and offers throughput rates of up to 2000 lb/hr.

Davis-Standard, LLC, Pawcatuck, Conn., has joined with Scantech Americas, Lansdowne, Va., to offer an X-ray transmission scanner for measuring sheet thickness.

This NPE show won’t have a lot of extruders on the floor, either running or static. Instead, look for videos and announcements of new technology. You will also find lots of ingenious peripheral devices to improve output and quality and save resin. Some will do all three, and cost less into the bargain.

A combination of new engineering features and chemistry allows Davis-Standard’s fastest extrusion coater, the Synergy 750, to coat at 750 meters/min vs. a top speed of 600 m/min when the machine was first built in 2004.

The first extruder in this country to have the new eight-screw devolatilizing section from Gneuss, Inc., Matthews, N.C., was delivered last September to a processor in Florida.

Davis-Standard LLC’s Converting Systems group in Fulton, N.Y., recently delivered its first high-speed, four-spindle “Black Magic” S4 center winder in North America.

A number of very large blown film lines have been installed recently.

Davis-Standard LLC Converting Systems in Fulton, N.Y., redesigned its PAC 50 surface winders to improve control of roll hardness in winding tacky films.

For about a year, the Black Clawson Converting Machinery div. of Davis-Standard LLC in Fulton, N.Y., has been retrofi tting and debottlenecking pelletizers with die plates suited to higher output.

Machine-direction orientation is still discovering new market opportunities. But the technical difficulties are so great that some big projects never came of age. New equipment could make it easier.

New compounding technologies displayed at K 2004 included some unusual ways to broaden the range of products a twin-screw compounder can make.

In the hyper-competitive stretch-film market, more layers often mean more market share. Moving from five layers to seven or nine can give an edge through higher performance or reduced cost.

At this year’s NPE, new processes to put wood flour into plastic were virtually everywhere—several even start with undried flour.

For the second straight NPE show, the focus in compounding is on twin-screw machines that deliver more speed and torque—thus more output—than ever before. No fewer than six suppliers of twin-screw compounders are showing such machines. There’s something to see in in-line systems as well. And there’s plenty of news in PVC mixers and pelletizing equipment, too.

NPE will show higher outputs of practically everything, as advances in grooved feeds, servo drives, screw torque, mixing screws, dies, and downstream cooling, cutting, and handling make everything run faster.

New-generation winders for blown and cast film are winding bigger, better rolls at higher speeds and lower tension. They've gotten so fast that cast film lines can now realize their full productive potential.

Probably the most intriguing news in extrusion at K 2001 will be a novel way to extrude clear film that differs from standard blown and cast methods.

What do extra layers add? Plant manager David London says they let Quintec make "the strongest films on the market today.