MDO Technology: Increased Productivity In The MDO Process
With over 25 years of experience in monoaxial stretching, Hosokawa Alpine is the pioneer in MDO technology and has been regularly improving its process ever since. Today, customers benefit from the highest MDO film quality without standing processability and optimised flatness thanks to the vacuum technology introduced in 2021. The unique TRIO technology “Trim Reduction for Inline Orientation”, coupled with vacuum technology, ensures significant material savings during the edge trimming process. Hosokawa Alpine now offers a quick-change system for stretching rollers to enable the processing of a wide variety of films. At the same time, the company is presenting new cleaning solutions. This significantly increases the flexibility of MDO film production and further boosts productivity.
Unique quick change of the stretching roller
Hosokawa Alpine has developed a unique process for changing the stretching roller that takes just 15 minutes. To replace the rollers, the protective grille of the MDO is opened and a rail is folded out of the machine compartment. The media feed-through and drive are disconnected at the touch of a button. The water is then drained automatically. As soon as the roller is released, it can be rolled down by an operator and the built-in crane can lift it out. “If a second roller is available, we can use the quick-change system to ensure permanent availability of the system and therefore maximum productivity,” emphasises Bernd Bayer, Director R&D Blown Film Extrusion at Hosokawa Alpine. This gives the customer maximum flexibility in film production. This is because it is quick and easy to switch between vacuum and smooth rollers or other roller surfaces that are precisely customised to a customer’s products.
At the same time, Hosokawa Alpine has also optimised the surface of its vacuum rollers. By rounding off the vacuum pores, the new vacuum roller can significantly improve the surface quality of HDPE films in particular.
Cleaning solutions for MDO rollers
In addition to the quick roller change, Hosokawa Alpine will also be offering an integrated web cleaning system to remove deposited particles from the surface. The film tube is cleaned using an extraction system with vacuum nozzles. This significantly reduces contamination of the roller surfaces and extends the cleaning intervals considerably. Additionally, an ultrasonic bath will be available for the deep cleaning of vacuum rollers. With ultrasonic cleaning at a temperature of 60 °C, even heavily soiled vacuum rollers are deep-cleaned and, depending on the degree of contamination, are as clean as new after approx. two to four hours.
In future, Hosokawa Alpine will also be using a doctor blade to scrape off initial impurities. “The new doctor blade scrapes off dirt on the roller surface and removes excess particles. An internal study has shown that this significantly optimises the cleaning process. And that in turn leads to an increase in service life,” explains Bayer.
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