MANN+HUMMEL Pro Tec introduces further developments and expansions of its innovative systems for drying, conveying and dosing of free flowing plastics in hall 9, stand D60 in Düsseldorf. Single workplace solutions and solutions for complete factories offer great operating comfort and flexibility for stable, efficient and economic process management in extrusion, injection moulding, calendering or blow moulding.

Module dryer update – small load dryer for engineering plastics

The new generation of stationary material drying systems is presented at the K with the example of a SOMOS® D200 dry air dryer (air flow 200 m³/h) and a module hopper system with drying hoppers from 50 to 300 l. The technical innovations in design, process control and control engineering that are utilised here combine great operating comfort with a further improvement in energy efficiency. This results amongst other things in the new process control of the rotary desiccant container of the D dryer taking a much shorter time for regeneration of the drying agent, which means that the energy required for this can be used more effectively. At the same time all module hoppers have their own control system structured on a universal concept. This independent mode of operation makes things like the expansion of the module system through the adding on of one or several drying hoppers considerably easier. The tried and tested ALAV and Super-SOMOS® control mechanisms used in SOMOS® dryers continue to provide high energy efficiency adapted to the respective current material throughput.

The new SOMOS® TP 8 compressed air dryer extends the series of small load dryers specially designed for multi-component injection moulding in the processing of engineering plastics. With an insulated drying hopper of eight litres capacity and a freely selectable drying temperature from 60 to 180°C it is suitable for throughputs of up to approx. 2 kg/h. The dryer works on the principle of air expansion and can be fitted with conveyer equipment that is operated directly from the dryer control unit.

Communicating conveyer equipment – high-precision, gravimetric dosing of small amounts

The current SOMOS® FG series of suction conveying equipment differs from existing models particularly in its range of features: the devices are fitted with control units which can communicate with each other. There are also cost advantages with this further feature, as up to 16 conveyer units can now be flexibly linked together to a composite without the requirement of a central control.

Another innovation at the K is a fully weighing dosing system for small amounts which can be used in the SOMOS® Gramix S9 or Gramix E gravimetric dosing and mixing systems for the production of multi-component mixtures for extrusion processes. Designed for throughputs of approx. 2 kg/h down to 200 g/h, a dosing precision of ± 1 % is achieved. In a throughput of 200 g/h the target weight of approx. 3.3 g/min thus varies on average by a mere ± 33 mg. This high dosing precision has clear advantages in the increasingly used practice of dosing very small amounts of highly concentrated masterbatches into the main flow of material.

Mann+Hummel ProTec GmbH