29 Sept 2003
SMS Folientechnik ships complete production line to Italy
Foam sheet for food trays
A well-known Italian plastics processor has recently installed a new tandem foam extrusion system from SMS Folientechnik GmbH, Vienna, to produce polystyrene foam sheet for the manufacture of thermoformed food trays.
“The system delivered to our Italian customer is now the 70th EPS foam extrusion line built by our company. This confirms once more our position of market leader-ship, especially in the field of food packaging,” Reiner Bunnenberg, Sales Manager of SMS Folientechnik emphasizes. On the foam extrusion lines built by the Viennese machine manufacturer, who ranks among global technology leaders in this field, high-quality foam products are manufactured at low cost. „Of course, we also offer our customers extrusion lines with specialized equipment upon request, such as laminating, coating or thermoforming stations,” Bunnenberg adds.
On his new line, the Italian processor is currently producing PS foam with thick-nesses ranging from 1.2 to 6 mm and 65 kg/m3 density. This foam sheet extrusion line with a total capacity of 480 kg/h is designed according to the proven SMS Fo-lientechnik concept of two extruders in tandem configuration. Via a 5-component me-tering system polystyrene and the required additives are fed into the primary ex-truder, a 120 mm Contracool model. Here, the material blend is plasticized and ho-mogenized before the blowing gas is precision-injected by a high-pressure three head diaphragm metering pump through one injector valve. Via a screen changer the gassed melt then flows through a melt pipe into the secondary extruder. This larger 150 mm Hydrocool extruder takes care of two vital tasks: optimized melt homogeni-zation and, above all, melt cooling. With a maximum temperature of 110°C the melt is then ejected through the proven 135 mm diameter spider-less round die and is foamed at that moment. Now the sheet slides across a calibrating mandrel with in-ternal cooling and passes underneath an air ring, which ensures high-precision shrinkage control. Slitters attached to the mandrel then split the foam tube into two 90 cm-wide webs which are subsequently wound up and transferred to the ware-house, ready to be fed into the thermoforming line.
Reader enquiries
SMS Plastics Technology
Scherl 10
58540 Meinerzhagen
Germany
Notes for editors
SMS Plastics Technology is a member of SMS AG.
SMS AG is the holding for a group of international companies specializing in plant construction and mechanical engineering for the processing of steel, non-ferrous metals and plastics. The group is comprised of the business areas of Metallurgical Plants and Rolling Mill Technology, Tube, Long Products and Forging Technology as well as Plastics Technology. In 2002, the group’s 9,900 employees at facilities all over the world achieved a total turnover of about EUR 2.20 bn.
