The general idea behind lightweighting is decreasing the weight of products and parts, as a way to decrease both their cost and environmental impact. This strategy can be very successful, as long as the innovative product can maintain its mechanical properties notwithstanding the reduction of raw material.
Proplast, thanks to the collaboration with Promix solutions®, a Swiss company which develops innovative technologies for plastics processing, has equipped a single-screw extruder with a foaming unit, able to expand polymeric materials by adding inert gas.
The expansion modules is installed downstream with respect to the extruder, and includes a pump which pushes the melt forward while the gas is fed. The crux of this system is represented by the static mixer, able to mix the gas together with the molten polymer without the need of further mechanical stirring, therefore inducing a rapid expansion at the gate.
This technology is a keystone of Frontsh1p, an European Union funded project which has recently started, whose aim is contributing to push forward the green transition of the Łódzkie region, in Poland, accelerating the region’s decarbonisation and territorial regeneration (https://frontsh1p.eu/).
The know-how of Proplast about this technology and the collaboration with Promix solutions® lets us look forward a positive outcome of this project.
Further information about Fronsh1p will be provided in the next newsletter… stay tuned!
Federico Bongiovanni
Source: https://www.promix-solutions.ch/