Agreement promotes new technology for viscosity reduction

July 2006

Coperion Werner & Pfleiderer has concluded a cooperation agreement with Stratek regarding the development and marketing of a completely new technology for the treatment of polymer melts, TekFlow. It is produced and distributed worldwide by Coperion Werner & Pfleiderer on an exclusive basis.

The company says that by the periodic application of shear and extensional flows this technology allows polymer chains to be largely disentangled. The result is a reversible and dramatic reduction in the viscosity of melts without there being any changes, for example in molecular weight.

The advantages are not only to make the processing of otherwise highly viscose melts much easier but also the option of working at greatly reduced melt temperatures.
This technology is of benefit for virtually all manufacturing processes by shortening cycle times and increasing throughput or by greatly reducing the pressure requirement when producing polymer blends and incorporating critical filler materials.