Extrusion technology is not exactly new- VMI has been building high performance systems with continuous extrusion and gear pumps since 2004, when we acquired the AZ extrusion business in Germany, which already had a 30 year history at that point. Yet the demands on the industry are growing and changing- and especially where high performance new compounds are concerned.
The need for durability, reliability and better environmental performance is transforming the use of advanced compounds in a vast range of industry sectors: medical, automotive, IT and electronics, Critical Infrastructure, Defense and many others. To match this demand, manufacturers need to provide a growing number of different compounds, including silicones, HNBR, FKM and even FFKM, all tuned and optimized.
Today’s manufacturers have to provide everything from microscopic structures on semiconductor wafers, or match the extreme conditions encountered in space exploration. In every case, sealings must have the highest performance under the harshest conditions. So they must therefore be produced to tolerances and standards that are of exceptional quality, using compounds produced under the strictest process control.
And this is not simply about products and components for extremes of performance because even the rubber industry’s single largest market: passenger tires, is being transformed by the need for a vastly higher number of variants. Where the industry once produced large numbers of products in a small number of sizes and specifications, today we have the need for tires specific to a particular car model or even geographical region.
Electric vehicles have also changed the game, with their requirements for higher torque, greater weight and lower noise, while the whole industry is working at speed to deal with new environmental regulations, including the need to cut down fine dust emissions from tire wear.
As market demands evolve, often in unpredictable ways and at very high speed, so the technology used to produce these increasingly complex rubber compounds also needs to change- and fast.
VMI’s extruder gear pump systems have developed rapidly to deal with virtually every demand the market brings. It doesn’t matter if you are working with low viscosity silicone compounds or, by contrast, with very high viscosity compounds: in each case our extruder and gear pump combination gives manufacturers the separate process control they need over plasticization and precise machine throughput- even at high output pressures.
- The extruder can be optimized for a specific rubber compound, to use the best combination of extruder screw design and barrel, drive and temperature control systems for that specific compound, to ensure the absolute highest quality results.
- Or the extruder can be designed to handle a wider range of compounds, optimized for the overall production range.
- Alternatively, we can provide a general purpose extruder, where screw and barrel can be rapidly switched over when you need to run a special compound.
Perhaps the most important point of all: thanks to the advanced, constantly developing operational management software that controls VMI’s extruder systems, you do not need a specialized solution to build specialized products. Flexibility is now built into VMI systems, and it is simpler than it has ever been for manufacturers to use the same extruder-gear pump solution to create the most differentiated, complex and high performance components.
The world economy changes incessantly, and technology never stops developing- but one factor, so it seems, does NOT change: the need for rubber-based compounds. These are still essential for key components in almost every industry.
Demand is going up, performance standards are rising continuously, and the need for fast, flexible response to unpredictable changes is a non-negotiable requirement for leadership in the rubber industry. VMI’s solutions, backed by 80 years’ corporate experience, over 50 years as a technical rubber leader, with global presence and an exceptionally dynamic R&D community gives you the tools you need to be a leader in your field.
To find out more about how we could help you meet a special challenge, enter a new market sector or simply achieve better operational efficiency, fill in the form below and we will contact you to set up an initial call.
