Mixing

To achieve improved product quality, optimization of production costs, respect for the environment and attention to worker safety, Colmec has developed and patented a new system consisting of CTM™ Conical Twin Mixer, CTE Conical Twin Extruder and GP Gear Pump.

CTM™ is a counter-rotating conical screw mixer that has the peculiarity of having a blind flange at the material outlet that remains closed during the homogenization and mixing phase and opens automatically for the discharge phase.

The CTM™ mixing is automatic and is not subject to the human factor and therefore guarantees constancy and repeatability in the mixing of each batch. This translates into a product quality guarantee for the end customer.

In addition to ensuring process repeatability, an additional advantage of CTM™ compared to the roll mill mixer, is the higher mixing speed. This advantage is due to the fact that in the conical mixing chamber, two important mixing effects are combined: shearing and compression.

The CTM™ should not be considered a simple substitute for the roll mill mixer, but is in all respects a new machine that exists on the mixing spectrum between an internal mixer and a simple roll mill mixer.

The hot compound coming out of the CTM™ is filtered directly in line by the CTE + GP system consisting of a conical twin screw extruder and a gear pump. This significantly reduces the production cost.

In the CTE, Conical Twin Extruder, the compound is kept moving smoothly and with low transport pressure. Its two screws have the sole task of transferring the compound to the gear pump.

In the GP, Gear Pump, the compound is pushed against the filter pack, but the high transport efficiency of the GP prevents the thermal rise of the mixture, keeping the batch at a low temperature (80° – 90°C) and thus avoiding pre-vulcanization.

The CTE has the dual purpose of feeding the gear pump and performing a buffering function, allowing upstream machinery to work in a batch-by-batch process and downstream machinery to work continuously. The result is the possibility of packing continuous strips of theoretically infinite length.