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pps proceeding
Symposium: S07 - (General Session 7) Films and Fibers
Oral Presentation
 
 

An Experimental Comparison between a Novel and a Conventional Cooling System for the Blown Film Process

Janas Marius (1), Andretzky Michael (1)*, Neubert Benedikt (1), Kracht Frédéric (1), Wortberg Johannes (1)

(1) University of Duisburg-Essen, Institute of Product Engineering - NRW - Germany

The blown film extrusion is a significant manufacturing process of plastic films. Compared to other extrusion processes, the productivity is limited by the cooling of the extrudate. A conventional cooling system for the blown film application provides the cooling air tangentially, homogeneous over the whole circumference of the bubble, using a single or dual lip cooling ring. In prior works, major effects could be identified that are responsible for a bad heat transfer. Besides the formation of a boundary sublayer on the film surface due to the fast flowing cooling air, there is the interaction between the cooling jet and the ambient air. In order to intensify the cooling of a tubular film, a new cooling approach was developed, called Multi-Jet. This system guides the air vertically on the film surface, using several slit nozzles over the whole tube formation zone. Hence, the jets penetrate the sublayer. To avoid the interaction with the ambient air, the bubble expansion zone is surrounded by a housing. By means of a numeric investigation, the novel cooling approach and the efficiency of the cooling system could be proved. Thereby, a four times higher local heat transfer coefficient is achieved compared to a conventional cooling device. In this paper, the Multi-Jet cooling system is experimentally tested for several different process conditions. To identify a worth considering cooling configuration of the novel cooling system for the experiment, a simulation tool presets the optimal process parameters. The comparison between the results of the new and a conventional system shows that the novel cooling method is able to gain the same frost line height using a 40% lower cooling air volume flow. Due to the housing of the tube formation zone, a heat recovery can be achieved.