Macro Engineering & Technology Inc., Mississauga, Ont., has launched a new Technology Division dedicated to helping processors improve their film and sheet extrusion operations through a range of consultation and services.

Line produces the encapsulant material used in the assembly of solar modules

Blown film towers may have been scarce, but there was no shortage of new technology aimed at helping to make extrusion processors more profitable.

At NPE2012, Macro Engineering and Technology, Mississauga, Ont., launched new technology to  extrude foamed films in what it describes as an “environmentally friendly process” that uses inert gas as the foaming agent.

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.

In blown film, equipment and material suppliers have come together to push five-layer technology into non-barrier applications previously held by three-layer films.

In most segments of extrusion technology, the word at K 2010 is more.

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

Extrusion machinery at the June NPE show in Chicago showed inventive ways to get more out of your floorspace and materials.

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.

Macro Engineering & Technology Inc., which has stacked dual-lip air rings on top of each other since the early 1980s, recently developed a new version for improved output and film gauge with low-melt-strength materials like LLDPE and metallocene PE.

A five-layer cast and blown film line for lab or small-scale production was recently built by Macro Engineering & Technology Inc., Mississauga, Ont.

WEB EXCLUSIVE A five-layer cast and blown film line for lab or small-scale production was recently built by Macro Engineering & Technology Inc., Mississauga, Ont.

A nine-layer BXL blown film line now being built by Macro Engineering & Technology Inc., Mississauga, Ont., is its first with nine extruders.

Macro Engineering & Technology, Inc., Mississauga, Ont., has built what is believed to be the largest coex blown fi lm die for PVC in the world-24-in. diam. to make 6-meter-wide, threelayer PVC geomembranes and greenhouse covers.

It’s all about higher speeds and higher outputs at this year’s “K” show in Germany.

 NPE 2006 presented a bevy of features to make film, sheet, pipe, and profile extrusion more efficient.

The new factor in extrusion machinery at this NPE is the influx of Asian suppliers.

A new extruder feed section allows conversion from a grooved to smooth bore in three to five hours, says Macro Engineering & Technology Inc., Mississauga, Ont.

Injection MoldingSimplified Hot Runners Save Time & CostA new lower-cost hot-runner alternative to valve gating is suited to less critical cosmetic applications where users need predictable and reliable gate opening but not sequential gate operation.

Eight years after nine-layer blown films were first introduced, only a handful of processors have mastered the challenges of making them. Machine suppliers are now setting up lab lines that could make entry easier.

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.

At K 2004, at least a half-dozen European machine builders will show new direct-drive extruders running gearless—or nearly gearless—drives with substantially higher rpm and output rates than conventional extruders of the same size.

Until recently, blown-film processors looking for auto-gauge control had a choice of one segmented-die system, one IBC-based system, and several segmented air rings. Now there are at least nine auto-dies, including two for high-stalk bubbles, and lots of air-ring variations. All claim to improve gauge uniformity, but there are differences.

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

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.

Gearless extrusion, cryogenic profile calibration, wireless data communications, and automatic start-up of blown film lines are just a few of the new ways to raise efficiency and output that were highlighted at NPE.

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.

Cyclic olefin homopolymers and copolymers are engineering thermoplastics derived from the ring-shaped norbornene molecule, which is made from dicyclopentadiene (DCPD) and ethylene.