battenfeld-cincinnati Vienna has once again supplied nine extruders to its long-standing customer Cortizo, headquartered in Padrón. The delivery comprised seven parallel and two conical counter-rotating twin-screw extruders for PVC processing into window and door profiles. With this order, Spain's largest profile manufacturer has increased the number of its PVC extrusion lines to a total of 28, of which only one does not come from the Vienna facility. The expansion of the machine fleet is part of Cortizo's consistently implemented strategy to develop its PVC profile segment.
Ten years of cooperation and expansion of PVC production
The cooperation between Cortizo and battenfeld-cincinnati began in 2014, when the Spanish company, previously specialized in aluminium profiles, purchased its first extrusion line in Vienna and started PVC profile production. Since then, this segment has been consistently expanded. Cortizo currently processes 50,000 tons of PVC per year into profiles, with further growth in volumes planned.
With an annual production of 150,000 tons of aluminium profiles and 50,000 tons of PVC profiles, Cortizo is among the leading profile manufacturers in Europe. The company employs more than 3,800 people at nine European production centers and sells its products in 87 markets. Profiles are manufactured mainly for the Spanish market and for other European countries.
One of the factors behind the success of the PVC segment are the extruders from battenfeld-cincinnati, which are reported to provide high reliability, output and consistent quality of finished products. A total of 30 extruders from Vienna produce window and door profiles in Spain in various geometries and colors.
Configuration of the extrusion fleet at Cortizo plants
Over the past decade, battenfeld-cincinnati has supplied Cortizo with 17 twinEX extruders in sizes 78 and 93 and 13 conEX extruders in sizes 50, 54 and 65. Nine conEX extruders operate as main extruders, and four are integrated into coextrusion lines. In this area, the piggyback configuration is particularly notable, with the coextruder fully integrated into the control system of the main extruder.
Thanks to universal height and tilt adjustment, coextruders can be easily matched to existing extrusion tools. This facilitates the use of existing heads and tools and increases the flexibility of line configuration depending on the profile and customer requirements.
Characteristics of the conEX and twinEX series
The conEX series is a conical series of twin-screw extruders designed as a flexible solution in terms of processed PVC grades. According to the specified parameters, these machines can operate at die pressures of up to 520 bar without difficulty. This enables the use of various extrusion tools depending on the profile design and the mechanical and visual requirements for the products.
The parallel twinEX extruders are characterized by a very wide output range, which allows many types of tools to be used on a single machine. This translates into high flexibility in production planning and the ability to quickly adapt lines to changing profiles and production series on the user side.
Processing parameters and integration with customer systems
All battenfeld-cincinnati extruders operating at Cortizo plants are characterized by a balanced ratio of mechanical and thermal energy input into the polymer. Combined with optimized screw geometries, this is intended to ensure high melt quality over a wide output range. In the course of many years of cooperation with Cortizo, dedicated screw geometries tailored to specific materials have been developed to match as closely as possible the parameters of the PVC compounds used by the customer.
The current machine control generation is, according to the supplier, distinguished by intuitive operation and a clear user interface. The extruders can be integrated into the user's ERP system without major difficulties. This enables profile extrusion lines to be incorporated into broader production planning and monitoring systems and facilitates tracking of process parameters and machine fleet utilization.
