First Krauss Maffei ‘eco friendly’ foam board extrusion line installed in China

Krauss Maffei Extrusion of Munich, Germany – have successfully installed the first Krauss Maffei Berstorff ZE75/KE250 ‘foam-tandem’ line to a Chinese Extruded Polystyrene (XPS) producer. The project was promoted within the framework of the International Climate Protection Initiative to reduce the greenhouse effect and was supported by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU).

The ZE75/KE250 ‘foam-tandem’ line has been designed for the production of thermal insulation boards made of extruded polystyrene foam in different thicknesses using the eco-friendly blowing agent CO².  This new technical solution will phase out hydrochloroflurocarbons (CFC) and partly halogenated hydrochloroflurocarbons (HCFC) that are still being used as blowing agents in many countries around the world.

THE ZE75 line is a twin-screw extruder combined with a KE250 that is used as a secondary single screw extruder. The ZE75 compounding extruder is rated for an output capacity of up to 1,000 kilograms per hour.

The excellent mixing performance of the twin screw extruder allows for recipes composed of up to eight components that can be easily processed. The downstream cooling extruder KE250 ensure optimum cooling of the blowing agent containing melt

Due to the innovative screw geometries, higher output rates are being achieved and up to 8 components can be processed ensuring a fine-cell XPS foam product which presents an outstanding quality and finish. The board processing line is designed for continuous treatment of boards with different lengths and thicknesses and milled edge profiles on both sides.

The production capacity of the new line amounts to 200,000 cubic meters per year.

Krauss Maffei is a world leader in plastic extrusion manufacturing systems.