18 Sep 2018

Fakuma 2018 Reifenhäuser relies on Polytechs’ CleanX – the star purging compound in the extrusion market

As a supplier of extrusion technologies and components for the production of plastic films, the family-owned company Reifenhäuser knows the importance of professional plant cleaning so that high-quality production processes in film extrusion can be guaranteed on a continuous basis.

The North Rhine-Westphalian company has been relying for years on the cleaning compound CleanX from Polytechs. Recently, representatives of the French manufacturer and Nordmann, Rassmann GmbH, visited the Reifenhäuser technical center at the company’s headquarters in Troisdorf near Cologne. Extensive test runs for cleaning a 3-layer blown film line with Clean HT (for cleaning PA6 and PET) and the new Clean HP (for cleaning EVOH and LLDPE) were carried out there with excellent results. ‟The cleaning performance of the CleanX products was excellent,” confirmed Stephan Nix, an Application Technology employee at Reifenhäuser. Moreover, these trials opened up a broad new range of possibilities and applications by showing the compatibility of the grades once they were processed in multi-layer films; for instance, by putting Clean LDPE into Extruders A and C and Clean HT into Extruder B to purge LLDPE and PA 6 resins, respectively.

With Polytechs’ CleanX, Nordmann, Rassmann GmbH has high-quality and effective cleaning compounds in its portfolio which are individually selected to clean specific polymers and supported by Polytechs’s know-how in adapting the cleaning procedure to the customers. Polytechs developed Clean HP for a wide range of applications, and it shows impressive results. The new high-performance product is suitable for temperatures that range from 80 to 230°C and can be used in a variety of ways: in the production of blown or cast films; plate, cable, pipe or tube extrusion; and also compounding and injection molding. Nordmann, Rassmann GmbH distributes the innovative Clean HP in Germany.

Biopolymers and plastics

The Polytechs research and development department is currently focusing on purging compounds for food packaging products and biopolymers. Biodegradable CleanX cleaning compounds based on these materials are now available, and developments for purging hot runners and engineering polymers at 300°/320°C for extrusion applications are also a key focus.