An innovative barrier sheet cum blown film line
May,2008

Rajoo Engineers has recently completed the commissioning of its indigenously designed and developed Five Layer Barrier Thermoformable Sheet & Blown Film Combo Line at the Product Application Center in Chembur of Reliance Industries Limited. This polymer processing line is one of its kinds in the whole world.

This combo line consists of four extruders, screen changers, melt pumps, flat sheet die, Universal Co-ex Five Layer blown film die-head UCD® and fully automatic touch screen based integrated process control panel to give an output of up to 75 kg/hr. of co-extruded barrier sheets or films. The machine operates either as a sheet line or as a blown film line. Extruders are common to both the set-ups. A novel system easily converts the line from blown film extrusion to sheet extrusion set-up and vice-versa.

The line is designed to produce HIPS, EVOH and PP sheets of up to 650mm width in a thickness range from 0.2 mm to 0.8 mm and barrier blown films from 25 to 100 micron.

Being a laboratory line for testing and developing of new formulations and products, process and parameter control is of utmost significance. One of the most outstanding features of the line is its control systems incorporating Siemens Extrusion package for Plastic machinery consisting of SIMATIC application programs with screens developed using PROTOOL. HMI software allows for complete machine parameterization, drives setup, recipes, trending and alarm functions. This ensures trouble free and fully automated functioning of the sheet line giving consistent quality and output. Another equally important feature is the GSM control through European continuous gravimetric feeding system. A complete history of each product produced is also maintained which is essential for such a lab application.

According to Sunil Jain, President of the Company -”When Reliance approached us for manufacturing a Sheet and Blown combo line for their state-of-the-art Product Application Center, our technical team got enthused and once again decided to prove its passion for innovation by accepting this challenge. After all, our axiom has always been – Excellence in Extrusion”.

When it comes to selecting technically challenging extrusion lines for its world class Polymer Testing Lab, Reliance Industries Limited once again placed its trust and confidence in Rajoo, who have earlier supplied two different lines consecutively and have always excelled to surpass the expectations of this Polymer giant.