KraussMaffei Berstorff adds portfolio for rubber profile lines

At this year’s Tires & Rubber in Moscow (17th to 20th April 2012), KraussMaffei Berstorff will present a new rubber profile production line for laboratory applications. Thanks to extremely short set-up times, this compact LabStar line is particularly suited for low output rates. Based on KraussMaffei Berstorff’s proven plant engineering technology, the laboratory-scale line ensures stable and reproducible processing.

“With the extremely low material consumption of only 8 kg/h, our new profile production line is the ideal solution for research and compound development applications, as test specimen and sealing profiles with a size of below 1 cm2 can be produced” explains Harald Hepke, Head of Rubber Technology at Hannover-based KraussMaffei Berstorff. “Further trials can then be conducted with the test profiles for optimizing rubber compounds in terms of extrusion behavior and specific profile properties”, adds Hepke. The laboratory line is designed for the production of single component profiles and features a high degree of process flexibility combined with outstanding ease of operation. Thanks to the building block principle, the line set-up can be adapted to different applications within shortest time.
The core of the line is a GE 25 x 18D rubber extruder for continuous material shaping equipped with a mobile operating panel for line control. A downstream shock channel ensures pre-vulcanization of the profile by means of short-wave infrared radiation.

“The development of our new vulcanization system was focused on easy handling and maximum production reliability“, says Hepke. The compact combination of microwave and hot-air channel is based on the production-scale equipment design and scores with efficient hot-air guidance, which gives optimum energy input. The cover flaps can be easily opened and facilitate material threading at line start-up and rapid cleaning of the processing chamber. Particular importance was attached to the machine operating concept. All controls and the visualization system are integrated into a control panel with touch screen arranged at the vulcanization unit. On-board control enables direct visual monitoring of all selected settings.