Leistritz Workshop: 360° Masterbatch Process

A comprehensive "360° view of the masterbatch process" was offered by the international workshop to which Leistritz Extrusionstechnik invited visitors to Nuremberg on 6th-7th November 2018.

More than 130 participants received expert knowledge starting from pulverisation, mixing and extrusion through to the sensible use of waxes and quality tests.

Many findings from the theoretical lectures were demonstrated live on the ZSE MAXX twin-screw extruders in the Leistritz technical centre.

First, a premix of 50 per cent wax and 50 per cent red pigment was produced in a mixer, it was then processed in a ZSE 35 iMAXX, followed by an underwater pelletiser.

The colour quality of the produced pellets was measured inline using UV-VIS spectroscopy and offline with a pressure filter test.

The identification of the speck formation was carried out by a blown film line and the material was then fed into a ZSE 50 MAXX film line to produce a cast film consisting of 68 per cent polymer, 30 per cent calcium carbonate and 2 per cent masterbatch.  

Further demonstrations in the technical centre included the pulverisation of polymer and the incorporation of 30 per cent effect pigment in 70 per cent PS in a split feed process on a ZSE 27 MAXX twin screw extruder.

"Our goal was to provide the participants with an understanding of as many steps as possible in the masterbatch production process chain and to present new, interesting clues for their own processes", explained Anton Fürst, Managing Director at Leistritz.

"As always, it was a very successful event in our workshop series, which will be continued in 2020 with current topics after the K show.”