Processing pilots centre
Plastics processing equipment transforms the material into products and it is key to understand how the processing parameters and conditions influence the material in the making of products. Similarly it is key to understand the impact of polymer recipe and design on the product performance.
Norner processing pilot centre includes a wide range of relevant technologies for extrusion and moulding of plastics described below in detail.
The pilots enable us to carry out your processing studies, produce product prototypes and explore the impact of the polymer on processing and properties.
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A well equipped blow moulding test centre and with advanced laboratory.
Extrusion blow moulding of plastics is one of the major industries for the production of a wide range of bottles, cannisters, containers as well as hollow plastic parts.
Norner has long experience in this technology and the polymers used and we have recently invested in anew extrusion blow moulding line.
Magic fully electric CoEx, 3 layer ABC
- Mould size – max 3 litre
- Variety of moulds available
Operations:
- Monolayer bottles
- CoEx 3 layers (ABC)
- Extruders 3x38 mm – L/D 24
- Parison profiling
- Leakage test in-line
Processing trials/results
Material evaluations
- Material/resin testing
- Material selection and verification
- Evaluation of recycled material
- Quality improvement
- Recipe development
- Bench marking and competitive analysis and evaluation
- Our EBM machine is well suited for processing of polyolefins.
Processability evaluations
- Optimisation and down-gauging
- Raw material quality and consistency
- Product and process development
- Processability and its dependency of the grade of polymer
- New polymer grade development and assessments
- Effect of polymer additives on processing and product performance
- Process and parameter development for up scaling
- Testing recycled materials
- RecyClass assessment of recyclability
- Technical support
Applications:
- Medical packaging
- HIC (Household Industrial Containers)
- Liquid food
- Technical blow moulding
Prototype production
We have several round and square shaped moulds available in different styles and surface in the range of 0,5-1 litre.
The line can also easily be adapted to run new moulds from customers.
Bottle testing
These bottles can be tested at Norner with a range of tests described.
Norner compounding centre carry out compounding trials, material and recipe development. The centre is equipped with both small and medium scale twin screw machines and our team has wide experience in plastics compounding and modifications.
The projects and activities include:
- Development and evaluation of materials like polymer blends, additives formulations, modifiers, fillers and nanocomposites
- Compounds for automotive and appliances industry
- Pilot scale production of compounds for customer trials
- Evaluation of process stability, filter blocking, dispersion and homogenisation
- Small scale extrusion
Our team has wide experience and competence in plastics compounding and modifications.
Norner have a development centre for film and flexible packaging with several pilot lines and wide range of testing facilities.
Flexible packaging plays a key role in the food and non-food industries as well as in packaging of industrial goods and chemicals. Norner have long experience in film extrusion and application and polymer development which makes us a good partner for your projects.
Our film extrusion and pilot lines include:
Windmöller & Hölscher
3 layer coex with 50/60/50mm extruders having 30xD barrier screws and die diameter of 200mm. The industrial scale line has output of 100 – 180kg/h and is equipped with corona treating, reversing haul-off, chilled cooling air, thickness profile measurement, and a back to back winder. Very well suited for running various recipes for packaging films including pre-films for MDO. A second die for HDPE High stalk extrusion is also available.
Hosokawa Alpine MDO
An industrial scale MDO pilot line with in-line slitting and corona treating for converting of films from roll to roll with up to 2000mm roll width.
Collin
A small scale mono blown film line with 25mm std. screw and 50mm die diameter and four different die gaps possible. Output up to 8kg/hr bur sample size from <1kg is possible.
Plastik Maschinenbau GmbH
Cast mono film line for film and foil of 0,01 - 1mm thickness with a Ø30mm barrier screw and a 400mm wide slot die. Suitable for production of films for testing as well as foil for thermoforming, read more below.
Gel counting
A Collin extrusion line with advanced gel counting system for quality inspection, quantification on cast film.
Prototype production
We can produce film prototypes for further converting or packaging as critical step in innovation projects.
Processing trials
- Processability and material evaluations
- Recipe and structure development
- New polymer grade development and assessments
- Development of MDOPE films and Mono-PE laminates
- Quality improvement
- Small and industrial scale film trials
- Product and process development
- Operational excellence
- Evaluation of recycled materials
- RecyClass assessment of recyclability
Materials
Our blown film lines are well suited for film extrusion with polyolefins and bioplastics. On the cast film line we have experience with a wider selection of thermoplastics.
We have an injection moulding test and development centre where our customers carry out a variety of trials, take advantage of our competence and run full development projects. We focus on innovation and technical solutions in processing and products of plastic materials for rigid packaging and components.
Injection moulding is the most used processing technique globally and is key for most markets where plastics are used. Norner have long experience in injection moulding and application and polymer development which makes us a good partner for your projects.
Our injection moulding lines include:
Arburg 150kN standard screw Ø22-17D
This line is used mainly for small sample size moulding jobs which can be a result of our polymerisation lab experiments, additive recipe development or other small customer samples and has a range of moulds for standardised specimens.
Engel 600kN standard screw Ø35-17D
This line is very suitable for the moulding of a wide range of standard ISO/ASTM specimens which can be quickly changed due to the AIM Quick Change mould system.
Netstal HP 1200kN barrier screw Ø45-20D
This high performance and high speed moulding machine has a range of prototype moulds for making realistic product testing. The moulds includes; thin wall packaging cup with 380µm wall thickness, a 4 cavity tool with two different hinge design closure and 2 different inlet (2x2). Husky/Scöttli 2-cavity cap mould 28 mm neck finish PCO1810, syringe body and piston, square mouthed cup with lid.
Netstal 3000kN standard screw Ø70-25D
This line is has a range of larger prototype moulds for making realistic product testing. The moulds includes; cup, bowl and pails with lids. It also include a toolbox design with high L/D and many surface patterns which enable studies of mould filling as well as shrinkage in both flow and transverse directions.
Application development and prototype
- Thin wall packaging food and non-food
- Liquid food packaging
- Cosmetic caps
- Detergents and household chemicals
- Beverage caps
- Standard caps for household and industrial chemicals
Processing trials
- Processability and material evaluations
- New polymer grade development and assessments
- Product and process development
- Operational excellence
- Evaluation of recycled materials
- RecyClass assessment of recyclability
- Material selection and verification
- Flow characteristics
- Material combinations (e.g. MB)
- Process parameter optimisation
- Cycle evaluation
- Energy consumption study
- Machine pressure, temperature and speed requirements
- De-moulding behaviour
Materials
Our machines are well suited for and we have experience with moulding of all non corrosive thermoplastics.
Caps and closure testing Injection moulding testing Failure analysis
Our laboratories includes facilities of relevance for all steps of the mechanical recycling value chain, material assessment and testing which together form our Recycling pilot centre.
Norner have been working extensively with recycling technology, recycled materials and product development with such materials during the past years which makes us a partner with relevant expertise for your projects.
The whole processing pilot centre is included in the recycling pilot centre which enable us to make:
Grinding and washing/rinsing of products
- Type of grinder
- Type of washing
Extrusion of recycled materials
- Extrusion on Coperion ZSK26 with vacuum venting and various feeding alternatives
- State of the art melt filter unit for cleaning the melt stream of recycled material
- Odour and volatile reduction technology
- Norner Fresh – a novel solvent flushing technology
- Filterest, gels testing
- Composition and purity of polymer
- Additive analysis
- Migration, extraction and chromatography
- T&O panel
- EN 71-3+71/9/10/11 (Toy regulation)
- For standard testing see more info in Polymer analysis and Material testing
Processing pilots and prototype testing
- Film extrusion, Blow moulding, Injection Moulding and Thermoforming
- Prototype product testing and material performance
Accredited laboratory for RecyClass Recyclability testing
- We are working according to the test protocols of Plastics Recyclers Europe to assess recyclability
- LD Film, HDPE containers and PP containers
We focus on innovation and technical solutions in processing and products of plastic materials for rigid packaging.
Our facilities:
Rotational moulding
- Rotospeed E60 biaxial rotation shuttle machine, up to 15 rpm, inner temperature logging, internal pressure and cooling, grinder
- 10 different moulds and applications: drums, containers, tanks
Projects and evaluations
We provide comprehensive trials on rotational moulding equipment
- Material evaluation and selection
- Product and material testing
- Quality improvement
- Foaming / structure layers
- Design and development
- Optimization of the process by using the Rotolog system
- Funded R&D projects and co-operation
- Product and failure investigations
- Tailor made seminars and training
- Partners within FEA
- We can do compounding of smaller volume specialty grades, in-house grinding and mixing of pigments by use of turbo blender. This is furthermore supported by our advanced laboratories which has specialised in plastic and material technology.
Download failures within rotomouldning:
Failures within Rotomoulding, Part 1Product and material testing
- Mechanical, optical, physical and thermal properties
- Weathering, chemical and environmental resistance
Thermoforming is one of the key processing techniques for plastics and used for many industries including packaging, medical, automotive, appliance and sport/leisure. Norner has installed a new thermoforming unit from Formech Inc in the processing pilot centre and are ready for customers who need prototyping or product testing based on thermoforming.
Formech: Thermoformer
- Moulding from roll or from sheet
- Material/sheet thickness: 0,25–6mm
- Forming area of 647mm x 622mm and depth of 350mm
- Positive and negative forming
- Speed controlled plug assist
- Pre-stretch
- Automatic operation from roll
- Sheet width up to 700 mm
- Pyrometer temperature control
Applications and prototypes
- Vehicle parts
- Medical parts and prototypes
- Toys and models
- Packaging, food containers
- Enclosures and housings
Processing trials
- Processability and material evaluations
- Raw material quality and consistency
- Material selection and verification
- Multilayer sheet of different material
- Material combinations and additives
- Evaluation of recycled materials
- Process parameter optimisation
- Material evaluations
Materials
All thermoplastic material that are available in sheet or roll can be thermoformed. Some examples are: HIPS, ABS, PE, PP, PET, PVC, PC and PMMA.
Thermoforming Material testing Failure analysis by microscopy
In focus
Gas Chromatography Analysis with Olfactometric Detection (GC-O) is a methodology for Chemical Characterization of Odorous Compounds.
Norner’s barrier calculator has become a popular tool among professionals in the packaging industry.
NORNER can perform testing of permeability, OTR and WVTR.
TMA is a useful technique within Thermal analysis, and is used to measure dimensional changes of a material as a function of temperature.
Vacuum and thermoformed products are produced from sheet and the production volume within the packaging sector are often very large.
Tremendous changes are ongoing within the caps and closures application areas for many reasons. The ambition for a sustainable future and a circular economy is the main driver.
Laboratory testing services
Norner provides high expertise in material and analytical testing, evaluation of physical and chemical properties, environmental influence on material properties, as well as plastic processing techniques.
Our ISO 9001 certified laboratory ensures high quality testing with focus on health, environment and safety (HSE).
Polymerisation
Research development and support at any step in the plastics market like catalyst, polymerisation, processing and product testing.