The Art of Plastics Extrusion

EXTRUDEX INNOVATION
3 to 6 Layer Coextrusion Line

The world's first 3 to 6 layer coextrusion line for manufacturing multilayer tubing with an overall wall thickness of 0.275 mm

In a call for tenders for an EU-funded research project, EXTRUDEX came out on top and was awarded the contract to create the world's first 3 to 6 layer coextrusion line for catheter tubing manufacturing. This novel manufacturing system took a total of 5 months to fabricate. It was then delivered to the customer, a renowned German research institute, was installed there and underwent start-up quickly and smoothly.

The coextruded layers consist of up to 6 different resins:

  • LDPE – 0.052 mm
  • Pebax® – 0.047 mm
  • TECHOFLEX – 0.047 mm
  • Elvax® – 0.033 mm
  • CapaTM 6500 – 0.042 mm
  • CapaTM 6800 – 0.052 mm

 

Extruder Units

  • The coextrusion line provided by EXTRUDEX is made up of 6 extruders, each with 12 mm screw diameter. It meets stringent dimensional precision and quality requirements at extremely low overall throughput.
  • A newly developed 3 to 6 layer die head, designed and fabricated in accordance with latest rheological discoveries on residence time, flow speed and layer configuration, was the key component ensuring compliance with these demanding project requirements.

 

Vacuum Calibration Bath

  • A high-precision calibration bath with fully automatic vacuum control and minimum control deviation ensures superb dimensional accuracy of the finished product.

 

 

Haul-Off / Segmenting Station

  • A highly precise haul-off / segmenting station ensures constant haul-off speed and exact segmenting to the required length.
  • The downstream transport and blow-off unit blows the segmented tubing into one of three take-off locations in the catchment pan.

 

Winding Unit

  • A single-drum winder provides traverse-equalized tubing coils of practically unlimited length on DIN-standardized winding spools which are transferred to downstream processing stations.