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Processing expertise, high-speed extruders and special tooling are perfectly matched in the realization of this extremely fast and powerful profile extrusion line: aluplast GmbH, one of the leading European profile manufacturers, currently produces 48 m of glass strip per minute at its main production facility in Karlsruhe/Germany.
Three Austrian companies have jointly realized high-speed extrusion of glass strip profiles
The speed of 8 times 6 m/min, so far unrivalled in the industry, has been reached by optimal interaction between the Argos 135 high-speed extruder from Cincinnati Extrusion GmbH, Vienna, and an 8-die extruder head for glass strip extrusion supplied by Greiner Extrusion GmbH, Nussbach. This new high-performance extrusion line was developed, optimized and run in at aluplast Austria GmbH, Wartberg/Krems in close cooperation with the machine manufacturers.
A challenge accepted and met
While conventional glass strip profile extrusion lines extrude a maximum of four strands simultaneously at a top speed of about 5 m/min, aluplast set itself the task of doubling the number of glass strips and increasing the line speed as well for the new line. The product is rigid PVC glass strip with a co extruded sealing lip for energy-saving windows in modern window construction. Franz Nimmrichter, Managing Director of aluplast Austria explains: "The challenge in this project was to ensure perfect melt homogeneity, as well as continuous, even melt distribution across the entire width of the die, with a high output of about 650 kg/h." The three Austrian companies have jointly succeeded in meeting this challenge. Nimmrichter is proud of the fact that aluplast has once again proved its innovative drive, which in his opinion is the main reason for the profile manufacturer's continuous rapid growth ever since its foundation 25 years ago. "We are the company with the highest growth rates in the industry, and the aluplast brand has already reached the third place among European profile manufacturers", Nimmrichter emphasizes.
A Cincinnati "Mono-culture"
"Here in Austria, we have cooperated with Cincinnati since the very beginning", Nimmrichter states, highly pleased with the outstanding performance of the Viennese extruders. After aluplast Austria had tried out extruders of various brands in the meantime, Cincinnati was once again chosen when the processor decided to update its machinery about four years ago. Since then, aluplast has successively purchased ten Cincinnati extruders. In addition to the Argos 135 P high-speed extruder used for the 8-strand glass strip line, which is now running in continuous operation at the German facility in Karlsruhe, aluplast has acquired three Argos 114 P, two Argos 93 P and a total of four Konos 63 P extruders. Two conical Konos twin-screw extruders function as coextruders for each of the three parallel Argos twin-screw extruders, which are used as main extruders. With such machine configurations, aluplast has realized three coextrusion lines for window main profiles that offer ultimate flexibility combined with a compact footprint.
Outstanding performance
Thanks to close cooperation with its customers, the Viennese extruder specialist invariably succeeds in providing extruders which meet the demands of the industry in respect of high performance, enormous flexibility, minimal maintenance requirements, low energy consumption, small footprint and easy operation. Both its conical and its parallel twin-screw extruders fulfill such market requirements to perfection.
The four Konos extruders are considered as the most flexible and compact conical twin-screw extruders in their performance class. With regard to process technology, they stand out by an excellent dwell time and surface spectrum, which makes them the perfect equipment even for processing materials susceptible to shear stress. Thanks to their wide processing window, the conical models are the ideal machinery wherever dies and materials have to be changed frequently. Even high pressure levels during processing present no problems to these plasticizing aggregates and their virtually indestructible drive units. They are ideally suited as coextruders, thanks to their short footprint and the facility for removing the screw from the rear.
Also with a total of four models, the parallel Argos extruders cover an output range from 100 to 750 kg/h in profile production. Specially geared to the requirements of the industry, the extruders feature high torque, which is provided by the robust, powerful four-shaft drive unit included as standard. At the same time, the heating and cooling aggregates of the apc barrel cooling system, combined with Intracool screw tempering, ensure a consistent, even temperature distribution in the processing unit and thus high product quality.
Today, Cincinnati Extrusion supplies all of its extruders with maintenance-free AC motors as standard, and offers other specific energy-saving features as well to meet the constant demand for more energy-efficiency in production.
Franz Nimmrichter, Managing Director of aluplast Austria GmbH
New mixing tower at the aluplastâ headquarters in Karlsruhe
Argos 135 with an output of up to 1.400 kg/h
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