Coperion, headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, installed a complete system for the manufacture of inherently dissipative polymers (IDPs) for IonPhasE Oy. The range of supply includes the complete system, from raw material transportation, feeding, dissipative polymer handling to finished product handling. Inherently dissipative polymers can be used in a wide range of products where antistatic properties are highly required.

Finnish technology company IonPhasE Oy is the market leading manufacturer of electrostatic dissipative polymer additives (also known as permanent antistatic additives). Its additive products control static electricity on plastics and are suitable for use in a number of industries requiring antistatic properties, such as electronics, chemicals and the automotive industry. The additive can also be used in consumer products that require protection from static electricity, such as air conditioners, vacuum cleaners, switches and household appliances.

Coperion supplied IonPhasE Oy with the entire production system. The key equipment related to the main processing steps of the product is developed and placed indoors. All processing steps and unit components are individually customized. The project includes raw material blending and drying and blending and feeding equipment. One feeding station is equipped with 11 high-precision integrated Coperion K-Tron feeders, and the raw materials are precisely delivered to the extruder according to the formula. This inherently dissipative polymer is combined in a high-performance ZSK 45 Mc18 compound twin-screw extruder consisting of a ZS-B side feeder and a ZS-EG double helix side liquefaction unit. When the ZSK double screw extruder works, the base material is gently plasticized and reacts with a variety of additives. Then an underwater pelletizer UG with optimized material flow channels ensures continuous product flow and high productivity.

Downstream equipment includes product dryers, and semi-automatic packaging machines. The

project, in addition to providing the necessary processing equipment for production, also includes the delivery, installation and start-up of the complete system. A global team of experts from different Coperion locations, as well as local employees, will ensure IonPhasE has a solution tailored to its needs, taking local compliance into account. The Coperion service team takes over the project when the system is installed and started up, so that customers can still receive complete local after-sales services after the equipment is transferred to IonPhasE. At the end of 2016, the system was successfully handed over to IonPhasE Oy. The Coperion line has since been producing inherently dissipative polymers.

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