“The most outstanding advantages of the new extruder are low melt temperature with high output” is how Fuad Dweik, Managing Partner of Palad HY Industries Ltd., domiciled in Migdal HaEmek, Israel, sums up his assessment of the recently commissioned solEX NG 75-40 from battenfeld-cincinnati GmbH, Bad Oeynhausen. He is a long-standing customer of the German machine manufacturer and was the first pipe manufacturer in Israel to opt for the single screw extruder of the latest generation, which offers many additional advantages.
Palad HY, which was founded in 1997, ranks among the leading manufacturers of HDPE and PVC pipes in Israel. The ISO 9001:2008-certified pipe producer is well known for its range of large-diameter pipes with maximum diameters of 1,200 mm for HDPE pipes and 500 mm for PVC pipes. In addition to its domestic market, Palad HY also serves customers in Eastern and Western Europe, South America and Africa, to which about 25% of its annual production volume of currently about 20,000 t is exported. The company’s product range includes fresh water and sewage pipes as well as pipes for natural gas distribution systems, and protective conduits for electricity and communication lines.
Palad has been a customer of battenfeld-cincinnati right from the beginning and now operates several lines with machines from the extrusion specialist.
“In view of our positive experience with the machine technology from Germany, we have again chosen an extruder from battenfeld-cincinnati for our most recent investment, and we were not disappointed”, Rami Dweik, son of the proprietor and responsible for the production as Deputy Manager, reports. On the contrary! The solEX NG 75-40 installed at the beginning of this year belongs to the new generation of high-performance single screw extruders from battenfeld-cincinnati.
Left: Rami Dweik, Deputy Manager Right: Fuad Dweik Managing Partner of Palad H.Y.
At Palad, it has replaced an old extruder in a PE 100 pipe extrusion line. “We are particularly impressed with the lower melt temperature compared to the previously used extruder, combined with better melt homogeneity and consequently better pipe quality”, Fuad Dweik adds. Thanks to the lower melt temperature, Palad also achieves significantly more even wall thickness distributions within extremely narrow tolerances, plus less undesirable sagging. Of course, the better pipe quality also reduces material consumption and produces less scrap. “Both the material savings and the roughly 10% reduction in energy consumption due to the lower heating rates make this extruder a particularly cost-efficient alternative”, concludes the General Manager, who is already thinking about a further investment in another solEX NG extruder of the new generation for other existing lines.
The completely redesigned processing unit is responsible for the above-mentioned advantages of the new solEX NG extruders, which are available with screw diameters of 60, 75, 90 and 120 mm and cover a throughput range from 750 to 2,500 kg/h, compared to the well-established and still available predecessor series. The internally grooved barrel in combination with a matching screw and grooved bushing geometry offers substantial improvements in process technology: a reduced axial pressure profile lessens machine wear, high specific output rates with lower screw speeds ensure high efficiency, and the gentle but highly effective and homogeneous melting performance at about 10 °C lower melt temperatures compared to conventional processing units delivers high end product quality with significant cost savings in production.
Next Generation Extruder solEX NG
Assuming that energy costs are 0.10 EUR/kWh, about 18,000 EUR in operating costs can be saved due to the 10% lower energy consumption at full output capacity alone. Depending on the machine model compared with, savings of up to 15% are possible. Even higher cost cuts can also be achieved in production by material savings through reduced sagging as a result of low melt temperatures, especially in large-diameter pipe production.
Finally, the pipe manufacturer Palad HY appreciates the extruder’s intuitively operated BCtouch UX control system which, in addition to modern functionalities also includes the possibility of individualization or personalized user interfaces. “For our staff, it is a great benefit that the equipment can now even be operated in Hebrew, and that the battenfeld-cincinnati service team is available 24/7”, is the final praise for his extrusion equipment supplier expressed by Rami Dweik.
