Tool and plant manufacturer Greiner Tool.Tec (GTT, Nußbach / Austria; www.greiner-tooltec.com) has developed a system for cutting the energy costs for plastics profile extrusion. The company claims the new “vacuum energy saving system” can halve energy use for profile extrusions by using speed-controlled vacuum pumps in the calibration table. In addition, the amount of heat transferred to the cooling water is reduced, it said.

Leo Weiermayer, chief technology officer, said the design allows improved efficiencies for dry calibration and for vacuum cooling tanks. In the new design, the vacuum pumps are interconnected, and individual pumps can be automatically connected and disconnected, Greiner said. For the vacuum cooling tanks, side channel blowers controlled via frequency converters are used, GTT added.

While technical designs with speed-controlled vacuum pumps are not new to the market, “the combination and special design of this system are a novelty,” Weiermayer insisted.