Written on 29.05.2013 - Technology
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Labfoam systems technology for trials and laboratory purposes

Thanks to its research and development work, Hennecke GmbH says it has become a leading supplier of PU processing technology. According to the St. Augustin-based German PU machinery manufacturer, this especially applies to machines and systems for manufacturing slabstock foams. To help producers and raw material suppliers develop innovative formulations and carry out production-geared trials with high quality results even for small volumes, Hennecke offers a special laboratory plant.

Labfoam helps to develop innovative formulations and carry out production equivalent trials with high quality results even for small volumes.

In practical application, test series for producing small amounts of foam are often implemented under rather primitive conditions. To reduce the high costs of trials and raw materials, a combination of “drilling machine and cup“ is frequently used. This method may seem to be elementary – to put it positively – but the effects of state-of-the-art machine technology on foam quality are greatly neglected.

With its Labfoam, the company says it offers foamers a significant improvement in the development and testing conditions of high-pressure slabstock production. No matter whether you are already using Hennecke systems technology or not, the Labfoam enables both process and technical machine features to be simulated very well, including the patented Novaflex technology for producing CO₂-blown foams.

The stirrer mixer of the Labfoam enables pinhole-free foam qualities

Compared with real production conditions, the results achieved by using Labfoam machines are almost the same. This is mainly due to the design of the Labfoam which – in simple terms – is a miniature of the foaming portal of a production line. The logic of the plant control also offers comparable handling features with no loss of flexibility. To ensure the reliability of the results and their translation into real production conditions, Labfoam is equipped with precise high-pressure metering pumps. Moreover, each individual metering line is designed for processing a customised and application-specific spectrum of raw materials so that a great variety of test samples is possible.

Slabstock samples: Depending on the Labfoam configuration, test series and trial runs in the area of ether, ester and CO2-blown foams can be performed.

Hennecke says the list of advantages is rounded off by very low trial costs. The running material costs, for example, are greatly reduced in comparison with test series on production machines and several new formulations can be developed cost-effectively in the lab. This means that the use of the Labfoam pays off in a very short amount of time, says the company.

Slabstock and raw material manufacturers including Otto Bock Schaumstoffwerke GmbH, SheelaFoam Pvt. Ltd, Evonik Industries AG, PCC Rokita SA and other well-known companies avoid cost-intensive experiments for their test series by using Hennecke's Labfoam systems technology.