Multi-touch Conquers The International Board Market
Flawless, smooth surfaces are mandatory for floor boards, refrigerator panels and optical panels such as those built into TV sets. Precisely for these applications, battenfeld-cincinnati now offers sheet and board extrusion lines with a Multi-Touch roll stack, which will be exhibited at the company’s booth. Although the technology was originally developed for PP sheet extrusion, these special roll stacks have caught the attention of numerous board extrusion companies in recent years. Since the previous K in 2019, several lines have gone into operation with outstanding results in terms of tolerances and flatness. These extrusion lines are already well-established in the international market and running in many countries around the world.
The Multi-Touch roll stack achieves its competitive edge in terms of flatness and flawless surfaces of the boards produced from PS or PP through the particularly long, intense contact between the smoothing rolls and the product, large number of smoothing gaps and the even cooling on both sides. For this purpose, every Multi-Touch roll stack comes with a pre-calibration and a recalibration unit. First, the extruded melt passes through the flat-sheet die into a roll stack consisting of two rolls for pre-calibration. This is followed by a recalibration unit which can be equipped with up to seven rolls, depending on specific product requirements. The long contact between the semi-finished product’s surface and the cooling rollers and the uniquely homogeneous cooling of the board ensure perfect dimensional stability plus high-quality visual attributes, and thus a wide range of applications for the products.
One product manufactured very successfully on a sheet extrusion line with a Multi-Touch roll stack from battenfeld-cincinnati is environmentally friendly floor coverings based on PP. In view of the downstream processing steps following the extrusion process, such as printing, and the fact that these types of boards may be exposed to high stress through solar radiation in later use, the standards for tolerances and flatness must be set extremely high. Due to the functional principle of Multi-Touch technology as described above, the produced boards perfectly meet all of these requirements.
Just like the more familiar PVC floor coverings, those made of PP are also dimensionally stable, abrasion- and water-proof, as well as foot-warm, yielding and footfall sound insulating. Therefore, they are very popular for commercial premises, offices and private homes. In contrast to PVC floor coverings, though, PP floor boards are significantly more compatible with the environment, since they are free of halogen and easily recyclable. First alternative floor coverings made of PP have even been awarded the German “Blue Angel” quality seal.
