A new benchmark for die-heads was the promise from Germany’s Kautex as it introduced its newly-designed extrusion head for consumer packaging applications.
The company claims that material and colour changeover time is reduced by 75 per cent due to the optimised flow channels and spiral mandrel distributors. It also requires less investment, as it has a reduced centre distance and higher throughputs on smaller die-heads.
Investment costs are said to be lower, too, thanks to its compatibility with common head tools made by other manufacturers.
Kautex also used K 2019 to showcase its contribution to the circular economy and PCR processing with its ‘green demo’ bottle. The result of a partnership with Braskem, the bottle uses foaming technology to reduce the volume of materials used by 18 per cent. The foamed middle layer contains 70 per cent PCR and 30 per cent bio-based plastics.
“We have a saying in Germany that you do something good and talk about it,” said Christian Kirchbaumer, head of marketing and communications. “Our responsibility is not just to talk about it but show commitment in combining the economic and ecological world. We had a closed loop system at K for the 3-layer bottle, where no samples were given out to customers, but instead 100 per cent were taken by our partner Erema for recycling.”
The bottles were being made on the KBB evo machine, and Kirchbaumer explained that the green bottles achieved a higher level of stiffness than fossil-based material bottles on account of the foaming. He added that price parity is possible, demonstrating that it does not have to cost more money to be ‘green’.
“It has a very thin wall and weighs 39g, whereas the fossil material bottle weighs 48g,” he added. “We can reduce the carbon footprint with this sustainable material, and we will have an independent institution check our calculations to confirm these savings. They will be above 25 per cent.
“It is a lighthouse project. We are selling the machine, not the bottle. We can help optimise the materials.”
More information from Kautex Maschinenbau, Kautexstrasse 54, 53229 Bonn, Germany. Tel: 49 228 489 0. Email: info@kautex-group.com. Web: Kautex-group.com