Compounding, injection molding and extrusion of plastics

Purpose

Material and product development of plastics require process equipment in lab and pilotscale in order to test new ideas without disturbing a production or requiring too much material. Through our broad experience and close cooperation with our partners we contribute to development in order to reach new goals and targets.

Tests and experiments in small scale means advantages regarding time to develop a material or a process, or when working with optimization. We can easily vary the materials composition and parameters.

Method

In our microcompounder in Borås, small batches can be mixed efficiently when there is a need for small-scale trials. We also have lab extruders of the Brabender Plasti-Corder®Labstation type with great flexibility and great opportunities for smaller batches, for example. from 100 to 5000 g/h. In connection, there is the possibility of injection molding of test specimens.

Our compounder in Mölndal is a double screw extruder of the type Coperion ZSK 26 with 255 mm screws and L/D 40. It is equipped with side feeder and vauum pump. The output capacity is in the range 0,5-25 kg/h and the compound is air or water cooled before pelletizing. We have various feeders in order to add and test different additives and for preparation of composites 

Our injection molding machine, also in Möldanl is of the type ES 200/110 HV-L by Engel. We have tools for injection molding of test bars (dog bones) for evaluation of mechanical properties and tools for plates in order to evaluate impact by falling object or evaluation of transparency.  We have a spiral tool used for measuring flow length that will measure how the material behaves during molding at a specific temperature and varying pressure. Melt flow index (MFI) is often measured for injection molding materials and we evaluated according to the standard ISO 1133. Injection molding of test bars follow the standrd ISO 294 but for each plastic material there are standards that we follow which specify the temperature and pressure that is recommended for that material.

We can extrude film and foil that is up to 300mm wide and with a thickness in the range 0,1-1mm. The equipment has 3 extruders making it possible to create foils with 3 different layers.

Deliveries

We always have a dialogue with our customers and partners what is to be included in the deliveries. It can range from achieving an optimized recipe based on a certain specification of properties to that we, with you as a visiting customer on site,  make joint decisions upon alternatives for the next set of process parameters to be tested. It is important for us that you know what you can expect from us.