The Vienna, Austria, location of Battenfeld-Cincinnati GmbH, which also has headquarters in Germany, has extended its partnership with a wood research institute that studies methods of processing materials with natural fiber content. As part of its decision to renew its agreement with Kompetenzzentrum Holz GmbH, Linz, Austria, for another eight years, Battenfeld-Cincinnati has completely overhauled the wood-plastic-composite (WPC) extrusion line used by the organization.
Kompetenzzentrum Holz, also known as Wood K plus, uses a fiberEX 38, Battenfeld-Cincinnati's smallest-scale conical twin-screw extruder for WPC. With the partnership renewal, Battenfeld-Cincinnati has completely upgraded the equipment, retrofitting it with a new, optimized screw geometry. A new degassing unit prevents the release of dust particles from the process chamber and simultaneously ensures highly effective degassing. The extrusion line is able to produce compounds for later use in extrusion or injection molding processes, as well as WPC profiles in one- or two-step processes when fitted with a suitable die and matching downstream equipment.