FEICA 2023 Conference and EXPO
Tarragona, Spain, 13-15 September 2023

Presentation Abstract

Innovative solution for precise dosing of polymers in the continuous mixing of sealants and adhesives

Today, the production of adhesives and sealants in discontinuous mixing processes is increasingly being replaced by continuous mixing processes because of faster process cycle times, avoiding of process errors and the opportunity to reach higher throughputs to achieve maximum cost effectiveness. The optimal mixture of raw materials has a major influence on the function of a seal or adhesive joint so that the individual raw materials has to be mixed in exact percentages and must be reliably fed to the appropriate mixing sections of the continuous mixers. The base polymers are typically available as bales or viscous materials. Feeding these materials into continuous mixing processes places high demands on the dosing technologies.

This presentation describes the problems and challenges of accurately dosing of components of higher viscosity (sticky, viscous materials and highly viscous bales) in a continuous mixing process and shows one possible machine solution which is based on a combination of a gear pump with an appropriate feeding unit like a conical twin screw extruder.

The process engineering principles of this technology as well as the possibilities of connection and integration into the continuous mixing process are presented.