The latest „KUHNE Open House“, was this time concentrating on biodegradable materials.

On Wednesday, May, 23rd, Kuhne presented an Open House concerning a very current and exciting topic: biological degradable materials and resins. Besides the KUHNE presentations all participants were able to get the latest information from the companies Novamont talking about Materbi and BASF talking about Ecovio and  Ecoflex (biodegradable materials).

The Open House was complemented by highly interesting presentations of  companies like Schulmann (degradable PE) and Lemo Maschinenbau (converting and sealing).

In order to complete the supply chain, KUHNE was supported by Fischer und Krecke (printing machines) and NGR (Recycling machines).

The event was opened by Peter Kuhne who passed on the moderation to Marcel Perrevort, the divisional manager for blown film lines. Marcel Perrevort introduced new developments and specialities in connection with these products.

Meanwhile, depending on the type of raw material, film thickness, die and cooling, output capacities of up to 500 kg/h are possible.

Afterwards Perrevort  elaborated on the R&D three layer coextrusion blown film line KFB 60/90/60-1600 IBC, which is equipped with the proven Smart Lip Maximizer.

Lateron there was the possibility to see the line in Kuhne’s R&D department in production. The blown film line was operating with an impressive output capacity of 300 - 360 kg/h with a 180 mm die with 1,5 mm die gap.

The three layer film, which was processed of the bio degradable material „Materbi NF 803” from Novamont was 1.500 millimeter wide and just 35µm thick. During the afternoon the film thickness was again reduced to 12µ.

These films were lateron converted at Lemo in Niederkassel on a draw tape bag  machine with extremely high number of cycles and then distributed to the visitors. 

Further test runs have been made last week with other bio degradable raw materials like the Ecovio und Ecoflex from BASF, and could be handed out to the visitors as converted samples.

Over 170 companies from all over Europe showed their big interest in this very hot subject as well as in innovative technology in the area of flexible packaging.

During the presentations of all speakers the special demands on bio degradable films were emphasized.

Among other things very low melt temperatures at high throughput rates are necessary; this is achieved with the new generation of Kuhne barrier screws EBA 10 with an increase of throughput of up to 20 %.

A further very important point is the bad cooling behaviour of these films, which can result in lower capacities in the welding process or the FFS process. New innovative cooling concepts are in development.  In the extrusion area Kuhne was again able to impress the visitors with the SmartLip Maximizer as well as with the new Stage Type  IBC cooling system.

Further highlights are 2 new reversing take off units with turning bars and a new model of a FFS line for heavy duty bags as well as other thick gauge applications.

Marcel Perrevort’s conclusion of this Open House was that it was a full success. In particular the large number of foreign visitors from Europe shows the positive development of Kuhne in both business areas and the importance of Open house demonstrations and conferences with speciality subjects.

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