A new customer in Russia needed to purchase both machines under a single contract, said a 10 Feb release from VMI, which, before, had only sold the extruder and cooler units separately.
In a second combined-line deal, VMI sold a system to a Slovenian customer, featuring a newly developed gearpump created in collaboration with its R&D team in Epe and Runding.
VMI expects to sell this customer a second line in the near future, according to the equipment maker’s press statement .
Going forward, VMI said it wants to produce all larger pumps for new lines in this way, particularly as the extruder and gearpump can be cleaned easily.
The Dutch company went on to explain the process for this combined line:
“At the customer’s plant, hot or cold rubber is fed into a so-called strainer. A VMI strainer always consists of a screw extruder and gearpump combination. These strainers are manufactured at VMI Extrusion in Runding.
“First the rubber is heated and/or plasticized by the screw extruder. The pump builds up pressure to push the rubber through a fine mesh filter, a sort of sieve. This operation strains contamination from the rubber, cleaning it before it’s transferred to the Cantilever Cooler.
“In the Cantilever cooler, the rubber strips are dipped into an anti-tack solution and then suspended in loops onto the cooling rack bars for fan-cooling.
“The temperature of the extrusion is a crucial element of the process. If the rubber strips aren’t hot enough, the liquid can’t evaporate and the strips won’t dry. If the temperature gets too high during the straining, the rubber quality deteriorates.
“At the end of the process, the rubber strips are neatly stacked into a box. If the strips are stacked in the box in a smart, orderly fashion, they can be easily reclaimed later for our technical rubber customers’ other applications.”
