There has been a steady increase in the use of the ENTEK Pilot Plant over the last 18 months. To best serve our customers, prospective customers, and our employees, we have taken steps to improve the efficiencies and safety of the Pilot Plant along with increasing our full time employees assigned to the Pilot Plant.
We are close to achieving Pilot Plant utilization of 40 to 45 weeks per year. Some of the improvements include purchases to support our QC3 extruder series (Quick Change, Quick Clean, Quality Control). These include:
- A 2nd set of screw shafts. This helps to have a built screw set ready to go for quick change overs.
- Doubled screw element inventory to assist with #1, along with increased processing flexibility.
- dditional Gala underwater cutter dies to cover a larger range of pellet sizes and to also achieve quick changes (a die can be prepared off line while the extruder is running)
- Additional strand dies to cover a larger range of pellet sizes and to accomplish quick changes.
- Modifications to our strand air belt for safer operation.
- Multiple Water and Air hose reels as well as 110Volt cable reels. This mitigates tripping hazards.
- A dedicated Pilot Plant forklift – no more hunting down and borrowing forklifts from other departments.
- Additional platform ladders for loading feeders along with catch trays to minimize mess on the floor.
- Buckets designed specifically for loading feeders to minimize mess.
- Modified and specially designed feed hoppers that are easier to fill with materials in order to minimize mess and reduce airborne particulates.
- Additional air extractors along with carbon filters for fumes to create a dust free and non-toxic environment.
- A diaphragm pump for transferring fluffy/fluid powdered materials to the feed hopper. This removes the manual “bucket dump” into the feed hopper which causes particles to become airborne.
- Detailed Pilot Plant trial plans along with trial preparation check lists to ensure a “Ready to Go” mentality. The equipment starts up on Day 1 of the trial as per customers’ expectations.
Schedule Your Trial Today!
Our Pilot Plant and our experienced technical staff is available to help new and prospective customers to sample their materials and compounds on our machinery. We consider our Pilot Plant and staff second to none – put this resource to work for you! We are ready, willing and able to work with you to help prove-out or improve your compounding applications. For any questions or to schedule a trial, contact me at 541-259-1068 or delliott@entek.com.