American Maplan: Total Extrusion Solutions at Open House
‘Total Extrusion Solutions’ will be the theme of an open house hosted by American Maplan Corporation at their facility in McPherson, Kansas July 6-9. Three days of machine demonstrations and practical applications will be showcased and discussed in conjunction with the USGA’s US Senior Open Golf Tournament, which will take place in nearby Hutchinson, Kansas.
Two demonstration lines will run each day and groups will tour the plant for up-close demonstrations and small group discussions with engineers, technical service staff and machinists. Compounding with Planetary Extruder System and AMC’s new Sheet Extrusion System will lead off the three day event on Thursday, July 6. Friday, Compounding will again be featured in addition to Polyethylene Pipe with the US premiere of the iNOEX Advantage System. The event will close Saturday with Sheet and PE pipe.
‘This is an exciting opportunity for us to showcase our products live with our custom-ers, allowing them to see the technology, ask questions and express their needs and concerns,’ said Kurt Waldhauer, President and CEO of American Maplan. ‘We are anxious for our customers to see our level of excellence and commitment to the market, while at the same time allowing us to thank them for making us a leader in the industry.’
The iNOEX Advantage System will feature the ability to change pipe dimensions dur-ing operations. This system is used in conjunction with American Maplan’s extruder, die tooling and downstream offering and will provide the processor with the optimum combination of function and economical utilization of extrusion equipment and tool-ing. During the Open House, this line will feature a developmental PE100-PE4710 resin from Lyondell Chemical Company’s Equistar Chemicals business. This resin has been designed to meet the stringent requirements and favorable characteristics needed by modern pipe processors.
American Maplan Corporation’s first public exhibition of Sheet Extrusion Equipment will consist of a 90 mm single screw extruder with output capabilities of 600 kg/hr (PP) and 700 kg/hr (HIPS). It will be running a complete line with a sheet width of 750 mm. The equipment design technology is based on market proven systems in-stalled by its sister company Battenfeld Extrusionstechnik, Bad Oeynhausen, Ger-many. The line will be processing two resins by The Dow Chemical Company that target the rapidly expanding packaging markets - STYRON™ 421 high impact poly-styrene (HIPS) and H314-02Z homopolymer polypropylene (PP) resin. These resins have been generated to help processors maximize their yields, throughput and qual-ity.
The Planetary compounding system will be featuring Shintec, Inc. (Copley, OH) PVC compound designed for the fenestration market. The Planetary system is ideally suited to shear and heat sensitive compounds and therefore provides the maximum homogenization of materials with a minimal amount of shear and heat history. The process versatility of the planetary system has also been exhibited by compounding several different formulations of natural fiber composites (NFC) with varying moisture levels. These NFC compounds can then be used in direct extrusion by American Maplan’s single or twin screw extruders, injection molding machines or other proc-esses. A planetary extruder is also utilized as the backbone of Calendrette lines pro-vided by Battenfeld and American Maplan.
Following the open house each day, customers have the opportunity to attend the US Senior Open at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kansas. American Maplan will host a private hospitality villa on the 16th hole of the course with exclu-sive access to the events throughout the weekend.