Munich, November 23, 2006. Together with Intertec Systems, Basell Polyolefins and Philips Tool & and Mould Limited, Krauss-Maffei won a top award at this year's American SPE Awards, held in Livonia near Detroit. The component that won Krauss-Maffei the award was an air duct for the instrument panel of a DaimlerChrysler Jeep. The air duct was produced on a KM 2.700 - 24.500 MX Injection Moulding Compounder (IMC). This is the first time such a part has been produced on an IMC. The material - long glassfibre reinforced polypropylene - is compounded on the IMC in a one-stage process immediately prior to injection. Substituting this material for the previous blend of polycarbonate (PC) and ABS generated a cost saving of around 15%.
The IMC injection moulding compounder opens up completely new prospects for processors to compound and inject their own product-specific formulations in a single-stage process. Injection moulding compounding is a strikingly innovative process for combining a polymer with custom volumes of reinforcing material, fibres or fillers. Applications for these composite components are very diverse, ranging from automotive, packaging, electrical and electronics to the foodstuffs industry.
