A new interesting application in Tempco for latex vulcanization plants, employed for the production of pillows and mattresses, for which we have supplied a small thermoregulation unit of ours.
These plants have usually a steam vulcanization section, inside a dedicated chamber, that however entails a significant loss of both energy and steam.
Aiming at increasing the efficiency of the vulcanization process, we have therefore developed a direct heating and thermoregulating system of the mould using pressurized water, also allowing a more effective and accurate control of the temperature and a more efficient use of the energy. The process requires in particular to heat the mould (weight of 1.000 kg in aluminium) and its content (35 kg of rubber and 25 kg of water) using pressurized water from a temperature of 50° C up to 100° C, in a cycle time of 30 minutes.
In this particular installation, heating is achieved using a steam heat exchanger, but it can be also obtained using electrical heating.
The project has been developed by Giovanni Caschetto, an engineer with a strong know-how and expertise in the field of latex products (mattresses and pillows), developed first in Italy and then in China. Overall, the system allows an energy saving of 50% in the production of the heat required by the vulcanization process. Thus this is a kind of solution that allows also small enterprises to implement an internally owned production line, with limited investments both in terms of installation and energy consumption.
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