Trelleborg, a Swedish producer of sealing profiles for the automotive and building industries, announce that it placed an order with KraussMaffei Berstorff for the delivery of two EcoLine microwave channels during the K 2013 held in Düsseldorf, Germany.

The investment was to substantially reduce operating costs in the energy-intensive vulcanisation process, said Trelleborg. Set-up and start-up of both microwave channels is scheduled at the onset of May this year

According to KraussMaffei, special features of the EcoLine microwave channel are reduced waste gas losses and the energy-optimised switched-mode power supplies. Its closed circulation of the process air provides maximum cost savings as 90% of the energy-intensive hot air remains in the system. Another new feature is the improved thermal insulation of the process chambers.

Each of the four microwave channel modules is equipped with one generator of 6 kW magnetron power. A circulator integrated into the energy supply transfers the energy not absorbed by the product to the connected water load, thus improving the magnetron service life. The channel has a total installed magnetron power of 24 kW. The microwave generators are arranged above and below the conveyor belt. The specific design of the microwave coupling system ensures an extremely homogeneous field distribution. Both the microwave power and the conveyor belt speed can be continuously adjusted. The microwave channel has an effective cross-section of 280 mm width and 150 mm height.

The central control panel ensures that system settings can be selected with maximum ease. And the innovative process-oriented user interface helps to reduce set-up times during material changes.