K SHOW PREVIEW: Extruder can change pipe dimensions while running

Krauss-Mafei is featuring QuickSwitch, a new extrusion system that allows processors to switch pipe diameters during normal production runs, thus increasing productivity and reducing waste. The company will be exhibiting a QuickSwitch calibrating basket and suction bell, which is capable of producing pipe ranging from 160 to 250 mm in diameter.
The calibration basket is the critical component of the QuickSwitch system. It carries out both pipe-forming and diameter determination by use of an infinitely variable adjustment feature. The fixed calibrating cylinder employed in traditional extrusion equipment is replaced by a tube consisting of several hundred adjustable segments. The cylinder’s inside radius is changed continuously and precisely by means of an external setting wheel.