At this year's Chinaplas (April 17-20, 2023, Shenzhen, P.R. China) Coperion GmbH, Stuttgart/Germany will be presenting itself as a technology provider for a wide range of forward-looking applications in the processing of plastics. With an extensive installed base, Coperion is considered an expert in the recycling of plastics as well as in the production of bioplastics. Coperion will bring its expertise in plastics recycling to life at its Booth 10K31 in Hall 10 with a virtual complete system for recycling PET. This plant allows a look inside numerous key components from Coperion and recently acquired partner Herbold Meckesheim, with whom Coperion now offers complete systems for plastics recycling.

In addition, Coperion will be demonstrating its expertise in conventional compounding systems at Chinaplas 2023. Coperion will show a ZSK 58 Mc¹⁸ twin screw extruder with a Coperion K-Tron K-ML-SFS-KT20 twin screw feeder, as well as the STS 25 Mc¹¹ laboratory extruder with a C/S-LW-NT28 twin screw feeder from Colormax Systems. In addition, the Coperion K-Tron quick-change feeder T35-QC will be on display together with a 2415 vacuum receiver for ingredient refill, as well as the comprehensive service offering on all Coperion technologies and equipment.

Enhanced plastics compounding, recycling and processing of bioplastics

At this year's Chinaplas, Coperion will be presenting the versatile and efficient processing applications of its ZSK and STS twin screw extruders as well as its engineering expertise in groundbreaking applications such as the recycling of plastics and the production of bioplastics. A ZSK 58 Mc¹⁸ twin screw extruder with a specific torque of 18 Nm/cm³ will be on display, characterized by its consistently high throughput capacity with first-class product quality. It has been locally assembled at Coperion’s manufacturing site in Nanjing, China. With the assembly in China, Coperion is able to react as fast as possible to customer demand. Customers benefit from local added value, transport and tax savings as well as from shorter delivery times. Even after-sales services are customized to local parts and needs. The ZSK 58 Mc¹⁸ extruder will be outfitted with a Coperion K-Tron K-ML-SFS-KT20 twin screw loss-in-weight feeder.

In addition to compounding and recycling, Coperion extruders are suitable for the production of bioplastics. This process places very high demands on the extrusion system due to the diversity of base polymers being used and the variety of recipes. Coperion has already realized numerous systems for the production of bioplastics and therefore has comprehensive engineering know-how in designing the process steps needed to achieve the required mechanical properties of the bioplastic end product.

The STS 25 Mc¹¹ laboratory extruder that Coperion will show at Chinaplas, has a 25 mm screw diameter and features a simple design. It is operator-friendly and easy to clean. By having the same screw diameter ratio D_o/D_i of 1.55 and the same maximum specific torque Md/a³ of 11.3 Nm/cm³ as the entire STS Mc¹¹ extruder series, production parameters can be reliably scaled up to a larger STS model. To extend the process window, Coperion has increased the screw speed of the STS 25 Mc¹¹ to 1,200 min^-1. This way the laboratory extruder is ideally suited for recipe development and basic scientific research with small batch sizes of 2 kg and achieves throughput rates of up to 110 kg/h. The STS 25 Mc¹¹ which Coperion will exhibit at Chinaplas will be shown with a Colormax Systems C/S-LW-NT28 twin screw loss-in-weight feeder.