CONAIR lab to drive extrusion innovation

Conair’s Extrusion Division has built what it claims is one of the most advanced plastics extrusion laboratories in the world, to help customers to push the boundaries of productivity and profitability. The opening of an extrusion equipment manufacturing facility in the US has allowed the company to create a 742M² state of the art laboratory dedicated to extrusion development and testing. The Conair extrusion development and testing lab houses four production-scale extruders manufactured by various well known industry brands and it is staffed by three experienced full time process engineers. In addition to conducting factory authorised testing to confirm that a new extrusion line (comprising an extruder, application-specific tooling, gauging and downstream equipment) can meet performance guarantees, the lab also conducts trials for extrusion companies. Customers can enlist the help of Conair’s extrusion experts in perfecting the line set up of new products or experiment with new equipment of processing techniques to maximise productivity and profitability of existing product. In addition, Conair used the lab to develop and improve the downstream systems it manufactures. Recent work has been aimed at perfecting online gauging and adaptive control for extrusion of precision medical tubing, including cardiac and brain catheters. However. the products being tested could just as easily be larger equipment for extrusion of siding, pipe or profiles. Conair says while most extruder manufacturers have lab facilities, they are preoccupied with perfecting the operation of the extruder. Conair says its lab is more adapted to evaluating and maximising the performance and productivity of the entire line, including downstream equipment and even auxiliary systems like dryers, loaders, blenders and heat-transfer equipment.