Special Application

Off the beaten track

Extrusion technology offers various fields of application. What motivates us is the strive to enter new territories by approaching new application areas and developing cost-efficient solutions together with our customers. Here you can see a short extract of our (partly extraordinary) projects.

Textile fiber made of milk

The production of a textile that is free of chemicals, antibacterial and hypoallergenic was the original idea behind a unique fiber made from the milk protein casein. Further components are water and secret, nature-based ingredients. The aim was to get a homogenous melt in the twin screw extruder which is spun into hair-like fibers through a fine die. We accompanied this extraordinary project all the way from laboratory-scale trials to full production scale. Thus, the fabrics of the future are developed on Leistritz extruders!

Flavors in sugar melt

Raspberry, orange or lemon - flavors refine the taste of many sweet delicacies. We supported a company in incorporating the flavors directly into the sugar melt. One important aspect was the homogenous distribution in the twin screw extruder with as little energy input as possible. We used validated materials for food application. Especially for this application our designers developed a hot die face pelletizing system.

Recycling of old tires

As exclusive license partner of the Canadian company Tyromer we make it possible to reprocess scrapped car tires: Here, vulcanized rubber is being converted into a thermoplastic state for the first time. The shredded tires are fed as grinding stock up to 100% into the extruder. After the material has molten super-critical CO₂ is fed into the process. The discharged melt is pelletized and can subsequently be used for producing new tires.

Expandable graphite as flame retardant

Expandable graphite is an excellent means in the fields of fire protection and flame retardants. In case of fire the graphite expands due to heat effect by up to several hundredfolds of its original volume and builds an intumescence layer on the material surface. As e.g. profile for fire-resistant doors it provides a 100% sealing against smoke. In order to produce expandable graphite, sulfur or nitrogen compounds are incorporated into the crystal layers of natural graphite flakes.