Krauss Maffei Extrusion, distributed in Australia by HBM, has developed a new wide extrusion die for foam insulation boards with a width of 1,200 mm.
The die is tailored for twin-screw/single-screw extruder combinations ZE/KE featuring an output capacity of more than 1,000 kilograms per hour.
The company said the wide boards can be cut in the centre to 600 mm, which increases the capacity of the entire production line, especially with boards in the lower thickness range.
An optimum flow channel geometry inside the extrusion head ensures even melt distribution over the entire die width. At the discharge from the die, the material expands to a width of 1,300 mm to 1,350 mm and is subsequently calibrated to the desired board thickness in a special calibrating unit.
The board thickness can be easily varied within a range of 30 mm to 60 mm, and a solution for heavier thickness is currently in the development phase. The corresponding downstream equipment is designed to cool, cut, and mill the boards to the desired dimensions.
Rapid start-up and tight control of product quality is enhanced by a four zone oil heating/cooling system and additional heating cartridges located in the die edge area.
The extruder configuration composed of a co-rotating ZE twin-screw extruder and a KE single-screw extruder ensures optimum product quality and is suitable for processing all blowing agent systems used worldwide.