After a small booth presence at K-Show 2019, iMFLUX made a significant investment for the 2022 K-Show that took place from Oct. 19-26, in Dusseldorf, Germany. The “K” in K-Show stands for “Kunststoffe”, a German word that translates to “Plastic”. The show celebrated it’s 70-year anniversary as well. There were 3,037 exhibitors this year and about 176,000 visitors, easily making it the largest plastic show in the world.
The iMFLUX booth was our largest booth for any tradeshow to date. Featuring multiple tables, multiple televisions, a walk-up bar area, and even our own conference room, the booth was a great visual indicator for how far iMFLUX has come in nearly 10 years of existence.
Demonstration Details
For a live demonstration, iMFLUX partnered with Milacron to highlight our technology on a machine they were operating at the show. The Ferromatik eQ 180 all-electric machine was located in the Milacron booth. Having a separate booth with a demonstration helped to ensure visitors were able to see iMFLUX at some point during the show. This show is quite large and it is definitely easy to miss booths!
The demonstration molded krinkle bags, using a Haidlmair mold of a container mimicking a paper bag familiar to show goers. Haidlmair is a maker of tools for crates, logistics containers, pallets and more. The bags were given to visitors of the booth.
There were many contributors to this unique demonstration. Materials came from two different suppliers: Der Grüne Punkt, and Sabic. Der Grüne Punkt, since 1992, has been providing recycled resins from Germany’s curbside recycling program, Yellow Bag. Sabic is a large global petrochemical supplier and has a broad catalog of resins, which has evolved since they began operating in 1979. Color was provided by Ampacet. Since 1937, Ampacet has been providing color, special effects, advanced functional additives and masterbatch products to the plastics industry.
Krinkle Bag Creations
Booth visitors were able to create their own mix of resin and colorant for a personalized krinkle bag. Sabic provided two virgin polypropylene resins with melt flows of 20 and 60, while Der Grüne Punkt provided two post-consumer recycled resins with melt flows of 14 and 25. This provided a possible range of melt flow from 14 to 60! Ampacet provided green, blue, and red pelletized masterbatch color from the FluxQF line.
Visitors to the demonstration were then provided the opportunity to select one resin, or a mixture of these resins, as well as a color or colors to add to their recipe. This custom batch of resin was then introduced to the machine. By utilizing iMFLUX’s Auto Viscosity Adjust™ (AVA) technology, good parts were produced every time despite the massive viscosity shifts. Typically, there would need to be operators making adjustments when various resins and colors are introduced into the process, but with iMFLUX and AVA changes like these can be handled in real time without any adjustments. Each visitor was then provided their custom krinkle bag to take home, created from their own recipe of resin and color.
The participant feedback was extremely positive. The hands-on demonstration provided an excellent example of how to utilize recycled plastic, while highlighting the iMFLUX system’s intelligence to make the proper decisions so that good parts continue to be produced even in the face of extreme variation.