Plastics

Compounding Technology for Engineering Plastics

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Coperion is a leader in processing equipment for engineering plastics in all grades.

Coperion is a leader in processing equipment for engineering plastics in all grades.

Raising your throughput and efficiency with our top quality compounding lines.

The properties of engineering plastics make them indispensable nowadays in the construction of vehicles and machinery, power and electrical engineering, domestic installation and for sport and leisure articles. The processing ranges from coloring and alloying of base polymers right through to incorporating organic and inorganic fillers and reinforcing materials.

From single components like feeders or valves to high-performance compounding systems and extruders or total solutions, Coperion has the right solution for your process. Our expertise includes material handling, raw material feeding, compounding and the entire downstream process, allowing us to design systems that exactly meet our customers’ specifications. We deliver solutions to engineering plastics processors that ensure maximum throughput rates with greatest possible efficiency and highest product quality.

Typical areas of application for processing of engineering plastics

  • Manufacturing highly filled and reinforced compounds
  • Alloying, coloring, incorporating powdered additives
  • TPV
  • Gentle incorporation of micro hollow glass microspheres into PP, PA, etc.
  • Manufacture of long glass fiber compounds
  • Mixing wood fibers into thermoplastics
  • Removing moisture from bulk materials with max. 40 % humidity
  • Degassing polymer solutions with up to 80 % solvent
  • Bioplastics
  • Mechanical plastics recycling and upcycling
  • Recycling PET bottles and PA carpet fiber waste, etc.
  • Compounding of high-temperature polymers such as PEEK
  • Filtration of PC melts for optical applications
  • Grafting

Highly filled compounds

Coperion Set Up for the Production of Highly Filled Compounds
1 Polymers I 2 Additives I 3 Fillers I 4 Cut textile glass I 5 Alternatively: glass fibers, carbon fiber rovings I 6 ZS-B twin screw side Feeder I 7 ZSK or STS twin screw compounder I 8 Degassing I 9 Liquid additives

Discharge Options

A Strand Pelletizer
The polymer strands are solidified in the water bath, and then are surface-dried in the air-knife before being cut into pellets
in the pelletizer.

B Underwater Pelletizer UG
The polymer is extruded through a die plate and cut into pellets by the rotating knives. The cutting area is completely surrounded by water, allowing pelletizing of polymers which tend to be sticky. Alternatively Water Ring Pelletizers WRG are available.

Raw material addition

→ Metered into the feed barrel:
▪ Polymers, additives and/or fillers
→ Downstream feeding of components into the polymer melt:
▪ Fillers, additives via the first ZS-B twin screw side feeder
▪ Chopped glass and reinforcing fibers, hollow glass beads, fillers via the second ZS-B
→ Direct feed of glass fiber/carbon fiber rovings
→ Injection of liquids

Process stages in the ZSK

→ Melting and homogenization of the polymers and additives
→ Incorporation, homogenization and dispersion of the fillers/reinforcing fibers in the polymer melt
→ Venting and degassing of volatile components
→ Pressure build-up for discharge

Recipe components

→ Base polymers: PE, PP, PS, ABS, POM, PBT, PET and PA  
→ Additives and pigments 0.5-60 %
→ Polymer alloys: PP + elastomer, PC + PBT, PC + ABS, PPE + PES  
→ Reinforcing fibers:
▪ Chopped glass/carbon
▪ Glass/carbon rovings
> 60 %
max. 50 %

 

Powdered additives

→ Talc max. 75 %
→ CaCO3, BaSO4, wollastonite max. 85 %
→ Hollow glass beads max. 50 %
→ Flame retardants max. 60 %
→ Sb2O3 max. 90 %
→ SiO2 max. 50 %
→ Metal compounds max. 95 %
→ Wood dust max. 70 %

Alloying, coloring, incorporating powdered additives

Coperion Set Up for Alloying, coloring, incorporating powdered additives
1 Polymer A I 2 Polymer B or pigment mastermix I 3 ZSK or STS twin screw compounder I 4 Degassing

Raw material addition

→ Metered into the feed barrel:
▪ Single components and/or premixed feed

Process stages in the ZSK

→ Melting, homogenization and dispersion of the components
→ Degassing of volatile components
→ Pressure build-up for discharge

Recipe components

→ Base polymers: PE, PP, PS, ABS, POM, PBT, PET, PA and fluoropolymers  
→ Polymer alloys: PP + elastomer, PC + PET, ABS + PC, etc.  
→ Additives and pigments 0.5-5 %
→ Flame retardants max. 25 %

 

TPV

Coperion Set Up for the Manufacturing of TPV
1 Rubber bale grinding or direct feeding of rubber bales I 2 Rubber Feeder I 3 Polymer Feeder I 4 Addtive Feeder I 5 ZSK or STS twin screw compounder I 6 Vacuum I 7 Oil Feeder I 8 Melt pump (optional) I 9 Screen changer (optional) I 10 Underwater pelletizer

Raw material addition

→ Metered into the feed barrel:
▪ Downstream feeding of components

Process stages in the ZSK

→ Melting and homogenization
→ Incorporation of components
→ Reactive extrusion, cross-linking
→ Venting and degassing
→ Pressure build-up for discharge

Recipe components

→ PP, EPDM (also bales)  
→ Fillers 5-20 %
→ Plasticizers 5 - 20 %
→ Additives 0.5-5 %

 

Latest Developments

  • Feed Enhancement Technology (FET)

    In the Feed Enhancement Technology (FET) the feeding zone of the ZSK is equipped with a porous, gas permeable wall and a Vacuum is applied externally. The results of the FET equipment are considerably improved feed and throughput rates in the processing of feed limited products.

     

    Coperion Feed Enhancement Technology

     

    More Info

  • Twin screw side feeder ZS-B

    Twin screw side feeder ZS-B (mobile)
    The ZS-B enables side feeding of powdered and pelletized fillers and additives or cut glass fibers. It can be installed at each extruder
    barrel position by a Special connection barrel. Captive C-washers on the barrels allow rapid fitting and removal of the ZS-B. The ZS-B standard Version is mounted on a base frame with castors.

     

    Twin screw side feeder (pivoting)
    The ZS-B can be mounted on an optional pivoting base frame. This is screwed directly onto the ZSK machine base and features extremely simple handling.

     

    ZS-B easy
    In easy design the ZS-B permits much faster dismantling from the ZSK process section and the twin screws can be changed very simple. Time for cleaning decreases obviously.

     

    ZS-B Side Feeding Unit

  • Twin screw side degassing ZS-EG

    The ZS-EG enables extremely effective degassing of volatile substances from polymer melts. The modular construction with quick fasteners  enables simple cleaning and rapid change-over as well as quick assembly/disassembly aided by captive C-washers. It is fitted to the side of the extruder either with mobile base frame on castors or with pivot-mounted arm. The increased process safety with the ZS-EG achieves 10-15 % higher throughput rates.

     

    ZS-EG side feeding unit

  • Quick-release clamps at feed hopper, degassing dome and atmospheric venting

    The ZSK feed hopper is only clamped to the process section with bolts. It can be removed very quickly by simply loosening these bolts. Then the quick-release insert which protects the barrel wall from contamination can very easily be changed.

    For quick and easy cleaning, the degassing dome and the atmospheric venting are also equipped with quickrelease clamps. The units can be removed by loosening just four bolts. In addition, the connection of the Vacuum line on the degassing dome is equipped with a quick-release C-clamp.

     

    Coperion Quick Change Features at Extruders

  • Coperion ServiceBox

    The Coperion ServiceBox is an integrated system for the online monitoring of your plant and components, ensuring trouble-free compounding with stable product quality. Our active start-up assistance and rapid expert support are the ideal solution for efficient production with reliable quality control.

     

    Coperion ServiceBox

  • Pluggable cartridge heaters

    ZSK extruders up to size ZSK 92 Mc18 are equipped with pluggable cartridge heaters enabling efficient individual tempering within the interior of each barrel. They are individually connected using IP67 plugs and can be removed for maintenance in no time, no electrician needed.

     

    Coperion: Pluggable Cartridge Heaters

  • Die heads

    Coperion die heads have proven a winner in practical applications by:
    → Simple and rapid handling thanks to significant weight reduction and rapid assembly/disassembly fixtures
    → Constant flow velocity across discharge section
    → Flow geometry optimized by FEM calculations
    → Peripheral zone heating for selective impact on edge area for larger die heads
    → Minimal “dead space” upstream of ZSK screw tip
    The optimized flow geometry and the easy and rapid handling are becoming more important in view of increasing batch/color changes and reduce production costs.

     

    Coperion Die Head

Comprehensive product range

Coperion plastics twin screws

Compounding Machines and Extruders

ZSK and STS co-rotating twin screw extruders are the world’s most frequently used extruders for the production of engineering plastics. Every one of our systems features smoothly interacting process steps and gentle handling of the product with maximum productivity.

Feeding Equipment

With Coperion K-Tron feeders you can rely on a continuous, uniform infeed with a very tight short-term accuracy and repeatability. Depending on the raw materials and process requirements, a variety of feeder models and configurations are available for use in engineering plastics processes. Single screw feeders or bulk solids pumps for free flowing materials like granulates & pellets, twin screw feeders for difficult powders as well as liquid feeders and vibratory feeders are just a few of the options to choose from.  State-of-the-art Smart Force Transducer weighing technology ensures that our gravimetric feeders provide a highly accurate result.

Material Handling Equipment

Our many years of experience have given us an unmatched level of understanding of material handling solutions for the manufacturing of Engineering Plastics. Coperion and Coperion K-Tron have designed and installed field-proven solutions for plastic compounding processes all over the globe.  Our designs have included complete material storage and discharge components, pneumatic conveying and mechanical conveying systems, weighing and feeding systems, and complete process control systems.  We offer a wide range of standard and custom made solutions for the Engineering Plastics industry.

Coperion plastics compounding plant

Plants and Systems

Coperion's unique feature is the combination of material handling, feeding, compounding and extrusion expertise under one roof. This has decisive advantages for our customers when planning and installing a compounding plants for engineering plastics - as they only have one contact, and clearly defined project responsibility.

Coperion plastics global service

Global Service

Service means more to us than someone stopping by to repair equipment. Our service structure offers much more than that. It consists of much more: over 350 service engineers and technicians around the globe who not only look after your machines and systems but also after your business. They see themselves as partners who secure your future.

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