KraussMaffei Berstorff extends its compounding line portfolio by the innovative and more cost-effective ModulPlus variant. With this new line concept, the manufacturing time is additionally shortened by about two months and the steel structure costs are reduced by up to 20%. Up to now, four lines of this type of configuration have been sold to customers in Denmark and China, for instance.
ModulPlus concept scores with short delivery time and lower investment costs
The new ModulPlus line concept convinces by its simple and straightforward design. While the metering, material handling, pelletizing and control modules remained almost unchanged and are still completely assembled in Hannover, the extruder is no longer integrated into a steel module. This offers free access to the extruder at ground level. "Thanks to this innovative solution, we save up to 20 % in steel structure costs and reduce the manufacturing time by about two months as simultaneous operations in Hannover are possible", explains Thorsten Schroer, Assistant Head of Plant Engineering at KraussMaffei Berstorff to emphasize the customer benefit. "A further plus factor is the possible international labor division: if necessary, assembly, completion and testing of the steel structure and peripheral components can be performed by the KraussMaffei Berstorff subsidiaries in China and the USA and the equipment can subsequently be combined with the extruder that was manufactured in Hannover", adds Schroer. A certain degree of ModulPlus standardization gives further time savings and additional customer value.
Over 100 line installations in module configuration so far
Since the market launch of the module variant developed by KraussMaffei Berstorff, the machine manufacturer has sold over 100 compounding lines of this design to customers all over the world. Thanks to short set-up and start-up times and low total investment costs, these lines have firmly established themselves in the international market. They are composed of fully wired and piped individual units that are mounted and tested in Hannover. Upon customer request, wet commissioning and customer personnel training can also be performed in Hannover. At the place of destination, the modules are then simply set up, connected and started. The decisive benefits for processors are rapid start-up without any interface problems, easy disassembly and re-installation in the case of production relocations and low total investment cost as a simple production area is usually sufficient and there is no need for sophisticated steel structures. KraussMaffei Berstorff definitely succeeded in substantially optimizing the overall plant concept.
