SML rolled out three new products at its Innovation Days 2012 open house, held late last year at its headquarters in Austria (U.S. office in Ft.

SML Extrusion Technology, Ft.

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.

Around three dozen, mostly European, processors are pushing commercial development of high-speed single-screw extrusion. They have installed more than 100 of the small hyper-drive machines whose screws turn at up to 1500 rpm, about eight to 10 times faster than standard extruders. At least two German machine builders are working on machines that will go to 2000 rpm and even higher. The goal is to raise output without increasing extruder size.

A giant PET resin plant scheduled to start up later this year in Salalah, Oman, will produce the first calendered APET sheet using melt directly from a reactor.

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

A new shaftless turret slitter/winder makes individual stretch-film rolls 4-, 5- or 6-up directly in-line with film production, thus saving the secondary step of rewinding from a master roll.

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.

An unusual cast-film process that drops a melt curtain of polypropylene between a flexible steel polishing belt and a chill roll has now proven successful in high-volume commercial production.

Thin polyolefin foams have been made for decades for decorative ribbons, wire wrap, and sleeve-type labels.

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.