Case Studies & Project References

Automotive work leaves little room for improvisation. Before the line was built, FORVIA received a quotation broken down line by line, with the critical spare parts listed separately, so the purchasing team could see exactly what a year of operation would need.

On the technical side the package included the maintenance and instruction manuals, the safety and regulation documents and the CE certification file. A third party reviewed the safety functions, and the retainer profile extrusion line ran through a full factory acceptance test at our workshop before it was packed for France.

Customer visit & acceptance

Workshop test run before shipment

Short clip from the workshop test run — retainer profile line running before packing.

The panels for this PET sheet extrusion line were built and tested before the mechanical assembly was finished. Every circuit is wired to drawing and labelled, each drive and safety component is checked on its own, and the complete set is re-tested with the line running at our workshop.

Wiring is the part buyers rarely see on a quotation, but it decides how quickly a thermoforming sheet line can be commissioned on site. Because the cabinets arrive documented and tested, the installation team starts from a working control system instead of a box of loose wires.

CONSUPLAST runs some of the busiest PVC extrusion capacity in Ecuador, and they came to us for a line that could raise output without a second extruder. The answer was a double cavity set-up: one counter-rotating parallel twin screw extruder feeding a twin die head, producing two 63-160 mm PVC pipes at the same time.

A double cavity PVC pipe production line is more than a two-hole die. Both cavities have to be fed evenly, otherwise one pipe runs thick and the other thin. We matched the die head, the vacuum calibration tanks and the two-track haul-off so wall thickness and roundness stay inside tolerance on both pipes at the same haul-off speed. On the same floor space, with one operator and one set of downstream equipment, that is close to twice the output of a single cavity PVC pipe machine.

BENK supplies complete PVC pipe making machines, double cavity pipe extrusion lines and counter-rotating parallel twin screw extruders for PVC, CPVC, UPVC and PE applications, with factory acceptance testing before shipment and overseas installation and training.

For this American customer the requirement was simple to state and hard to build: 16-32 mm pipe, in volume, without adding extruders. Four cavity extrusion is the economical answer at that diameter. One counter-rotating parallel twin screw extruder feeds a four cavity die head, and four pipes leave the die together.

Keeping the four cavities balanced is most of the engineering. The die is flow-designed so each cavity sees the same pressure, the vacuum calibration tank is divided into four tracks with individual sizing sleeves, and the haul-off drives four synchronised belts so no pipe is pulled faster than its neighbours. Downstream the line cuts to length and bells automatically; the unit in these photos is a 40 mm one-out-four fully automatic belling machine.

A four cavity PVC pipe line only pays off if it stays running, so cooling length, belt wear and changeover time are designed in from the start rather than added later.

BENK builds complete PVC pipe making machines, multi cavity pipe extrusion lines (double cavity and four cavity) and counter-rotating parallel twin screw extruders, together with automatic PVC pipe belling machines. Lines are assembled and factory-tested in our workshop, then shipped with full documentation and overseas installation support.

This 160-450 mm PVC pipe production line was built for a Korean subsidiary of the Samsung Group. Large diameter PVC pipe is a cooling problem as much as an extrusion problem: if the pipe leaves the calibration sleeve too warm it ovalises, and if it cools unevenly the wall thickness drifts. The calibration and spray cooling section on this line was therefore sized for the full 450 mm range, with inline support rollers through the tanks.

The line is completed by a four-belt haul-off and automatic cutting, so a full 450 mm pipe is pulled without slippage and cut square. Like the rest of our large diameter PVC pipe extrusion lines, it was assembled, wired and run at our workshop in Zhangjiagang before it was packed for Korea.

BENK supplies PVC pipe making machines from 16 mm irrigation pipe through to 630 mm large diameter PVC pipe production lines, including double and four cavity lines for small diameters and single cavity lines with long calibration sections for large diameters. Send us your pipe sizes and target output and we will recommend the extruder and line length that fit.