Norner has announced that a new flexible compounding line has been installed and is in operation at the new Polymer Exploration Centre. The new line is supplied by Coperion, an industry expert in compounding and extrusion, from Germany.
When Norner decided to expand and establish the new Polymer Exploration Centre, investments in new pilot lines and lab facilities were part of the plan. Now it is in the implementation phase of these investments and the new Coperion compounder will contribute to improve its capability to deliver more complex projects to our clients.
“This new compounder is a perfect addition to our recognised compounding pilot centre where we had three lines until now. Compounding is the heart of polymer recipe development and a key for many of our projects. This line will be supporting all our business areas and is a great asset for our customers.”, says Morten Augestad, BUVP consumables at Norner.
This Coperion ZSK18 MEGALab compounding line can run in 3 different L/D configurations 60, 40 and 20. Being able to utilise different lengths of the machine yields large flexibility in processing conditions. The machine is equipped with feeders for; pellets, powders, wood and short glass fibres, fluffy nanoparticles and liquids. The screw configurations can be varied for the different compounding jobs and the line can run at temperatures as high as 450°. The melt strings can be cooled in water-bath or with a dry/air cooler before pelletisation. This line is truly very flexible both with respect to the type of base resins and other ingredients that can be processed.
“We have been investing in new pilot lines in order to offer better services to our customers. This new line enables us to work with new base resins and new modifiers like high temperature engineering plastics, higher amount of fillers, liquid components and even nanomaterials.” Says Asbjørn Noraberg, manager of application pilot centre at Norner.