EuroWire November 2022

Corporate News

Energy-efficient aluminium extrusion press

the growing electromobility market. The company also plans to produce extruded profiles, up to 620mm wide, for truck superstructures, as well as profiles intended for railway carriage manufacturing. The new investment will allow Exlabesa’s building systems division to produce unique architectural solutions, enabling it to target demanding bespoke façade projects.

Exlabesa, a multinational company specialising in the production of extruded aluminium profiles, has awarded a contract to SMS group for the supply of a 71 MN short-stroke extrusion press of front-loader design. With this new acquisition, Exlabesa plans to operate 27 extrusion lines, including five SMS extrusion presses, at its nine production facilities. The new press will be installed at the company’s Padron site in Spain and will be the largest press in the Iberian Peninsula. The plant is scheduled to go on stream at the beginning of 2024. “Lighter and, at the same time, safe structural designs, low fuel consumption and reduced emissions for sustainable mobility are today’s drivers for using high-strength aluminium profiles,” said Francisco Quintá, founder of Exlabesa. “With our new large extrusion press we intend to double our production output for large profiles and secure the availability of the plant. Furthermore, we will be able to offer new profile cross-sections and widths that were not possible before, and strengthen our position as market leader in the European aluminium industry.” The new extrusion press will be used mainly for the production of profiles for

(From left) Francisco Quintá, founder of Exlabesa Group, with Jose Boogen and Hans-Uwe Rode of SMS group

Hans-Uwe Rode, sales extrusion presses, SMS group, commented, “We are proud to support Exlabesa on their expansion course. Through the consistent use of optimised plant technology and the expansion of its portfolio to include Spain’s largest extrusion press, Exlabesa is growing into one of Europe’s leading extrusion press plants.” SMS group GmbH www.sms-group.com

Billets with a diameter of 406mm (16") and a maximum length of 1,800mm that are manufactured in-house will also be utilised. Exlabesa produces the aluminium billets required for this in its own recycling plant, using equipment supplied by Hertwich Engineering, an SMS group company. The front-loader press will be based on the latest SMS group design. The control concept for the new extrusion press is identical to that implemented in equipment already supplied. Using the EcoDraulic concept, a claimed reduction in energy consumption of up to ten per cent can be achieved. The system, with its intelligent, demand oriented start/stop control function, switches off all hydraulic pumps that are not required during the extrusion process. Many manufacturers have changed to volumetric mixing stations, which work independently of the consumption of the extruder. A mixing station system has a central neckpiece with two sensors. When the lower sensor is free of material the system will start, and will stop when the upper sensor is covered by material. As the main raw material is also controlled by a dosing station, the material mixture will always be in the correct ratio. Whether the extruder is being operated at full production speed or at very low rpm has no influence on the quality of the material mixture. Woywod Kunststoffmaschinen GmbH & Co Vertriebs-KG https://woywod.de

Woywod Kunststoffmaschinen Extrusion equipment for the production of small diameter cables and fibre optics is generally small, and the output of these extruders is also relatively small. Consequently, the required amount of colourant might be difficult to handle. TBA

Volumetric mixing station

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November 2022