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The Ferrari among the corrugators: UNICOR’s UC 125 produces corrugated pipe with speedy 30 m/min
The pressure to reduce cost of production on the one hand and to increase production outputs on the other is part of the daily business of any manufacturer of corrugated plastic pipe. This effect is not only supported by the current economic crisis but also by the general stiff competition of quality-orientated and customer-orientated companies with low-cost suppliers. And so not few of the pipe producers hit the limits of what is economically and technologically possible.
For this reason the question of these producers is how to reduce cost of production by increasing outputs of plastic pipe at the same time.
The technological answer on that question comes from UNICOR and has the name UC 125. And this corrugator has the potential to create a sensation on the international plastic pipe market due to its high production speed. Double wall pipe with the nominal size of 110 mm can be produced with 30 m/min. The applications are cable protection pipe and drainage pipe. The high production speed of the UNICOR UC 125 is the result of new developments at the cooling system and the mould blocks.
For comparison only: the average speed (for the same pipe diameter) of present corrugator machinery available on the market is at about 18 m/min.
One UC 125 replaces two common corrugators
Being aware of the high speed of the UC 125, UNICOR’s Managing Director Klaus Kaufmann is already on step ahead and points out the cost saving of his new machine: "Our new technology enables pipe manufacturers to replace two corrugators that worked with average speeds by the faster UC 125. By that not only fewer machine operators are necessary for pipe production but even a significant reduction of cost for energy and maintenance can be achieved."
According to UNICOR one main focus of the development department has been put on the reduction on operation and maintenance costs. The result is that the number of wearing parts could be minimized and the change of wearing parts can be executed much faster. The UNICOR staff for instance optimized the curve geometry of the mould block in-let and out-let in reaction to the higher mechanical requirements. The demoulding of the forming blocks has been extended by an additional demoulding element. These parallel developments guarantee a considerable extension of the components live cycle.
The change of complete sets of mould blocks has been advanced as well. Now it is possible to replace single mould blocks quickly and save by other nominal sizes. So a complete mould block set consisting of 82 pairs of blocks can be replaced by two operators within only 30 minutes. This reduces breaks in production process to the minimum.
UNICOR presented the new UC 125 during an in-house show in May in its technical lab in Hassfurt. Pipe producers from Europe, Asia, Africa and Northern America got an idea of the new high speed corrugator and were amazed by the constant production process of corrugated HDPE pipe (110 mm o.d.) at 30 m/min. Impressed by the speed, a visitor of the symposium said that the UC 125 "might be the fastest corrugator in the world".
It was Klaus Kaufmann’s turn to add a comment to that positive commendation: "The UC 125 is not only fast and efficient. The corrugator is furthermore an important tool for pipe producers that, when focussing on output and price per meter, can help being always one big step ahead of their competitors."
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