Press release ri-1e
Trade press
RIKUTEC at the NPE 2015 stand of Kautex Maschinenbau
Large blowing machinery for tanks up to 10,000 l
Altenkirchen, March 09, 2015 – At the NPE exhibition (Orlando, Florida,
March 23 to 27), industrial blow molding machine manufacturer RIKUTEC
Richter Kunststofftechnik GmbH & Co. KG of Altenkirchen, Germany, will
present itself at the stand (W1551) of Kautex Maschinenbau, Bonn.
The portfolios of extrusion blow molding machines available from the two
manufacturers complement each other perfectly: Kautex essentially supplies
machinery for containers and tanks with capacities of up to about 1,000 l,
while the range of RIKUTEC machinery only starts around that size. So it is
only natural that since 2010, both companies have been exploiting synergies
and cooperating successfully.
In the currently most exciting project, RIKUTEC is constructing the world’s
largest blow molder GBM S10.000 LD for a customer on the Arab peninsula.
The machine with a clamping force of 6,000 kN (600 t) will produce hollow
bodies of a capacity of as much as 10,000 l.
This four-layer coextrusion machine is equipped with a 400 l accumulator
head and four extruders, each with a diameter of 150 mm and an L/D ratio of
25. Each extruder provides a minimum throughput of 650 kg per hour making
for a total throughput of 2,600 kg/h. The maximum shot capacity of the
accumulator head is 330 kg.
The machine will be used to produce above-ground water tanks with a
capacity of 7,000 l and a net weight of 250 kg that will be provided with a
white UV-stabilized outer layer for better reflection of the sunlight. An inner
layer of food grade material is followed by two black middle layers to prevent
the formation of algae. These two middle layers are fed by extruders also
processing post-industrial and purchased regrind. The screws comprise
special mixing zones and — like the barrels of the extruders for the middle
layers — are especially hardened, which allows the incorporation of calcium
carbonate (CaCO3), not only for cost reasons. Since the above-ground tanks
can be exposed to summer temperatures of as high as 55 °C, the calcium
carbonate also serves to increase the stiffness of the processed
polyethylene.
While rotomolded tanks of this size draw their stiffness from a 25 to 30 mm
thick wall with a foamed core layer comprising about two thirds of the total
wall thickness, the blow molded tanks have a wall thickness of only 10 to 12
mm. As a consequence, the more cost-efficient blow molding process
permits the production of about eight tanks per hour, while the rotational
molding machine may need a full hour for a single tank. Moreover, the fully
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automatic blow molding process can be controlled by a just one machine
operator, whereas rotomolding requires up to four people.
“RIKUTEC has been active in “ultra large” blow molding machine projects for
more than thirty years”, says Stefan Eichelhardt, head of the Business Unit
‘Blow Moulding Machinery’. “Our focus is on the manufacturing of machinery,
and together with Kautex Maschinenbau we are excellently placed.”
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(503 words 3,067 charactes incl. spaces)
© Rikutec 2015, reprint free, 2 voucher copies requested
RIKUTEC GBM S10.000 LD (photo: Rikutec)
A high resolution jpg file can be downloaded at http://www.polymediaconsult.net/en/index.php
in the press office
Contact (for the project)
Contact for editorial topics
RIKUTEC Richter Kunststofftechnik GmbH
& Co. KG
polymediaconsult
Stefan Eichelhardt
SBU Manager Blow Molding Machinery
Graf-Zeppelin-Str. 1-5
D-57610 Altenkirchen, Germany
Tel: +49-2681-9546-80
s.eichelhardt@rikutec.de
Dr.-Ing. Michael Thielen
Dammerstr. 112
41066 Mönchengladbach, Germany
Tel.: 02161 6884469
mt@polymediaconsult.de
www.polymediaconsult.de
http://www.rikutec.de
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