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He was always passionate about his Foam Machines, cared for and controlled down to the last detail. He was always present with customers during the Start-up of his foam lines because he considered them as his own children whom he accompanied on the greatest adventures to conquer the world's markets.
Today, the legacy lives on through Luigi's sons, Francesco Poli and Fabrizio Poli, who are actively steering the company towards international success. The FAP team, comprising skilled professionals, plays a pivotal role in elevating the company to new heights.
The passion and dedication inherited from Luigi are evident in every project undertaken by sons, and the entire FAP team. As they continue to build on their father's vision, FAP is not merely a company; it's a testament to the enduring spirit of innovation, creaftsmanship, and familialbonds.
Luigi's memory lives on, not just in the machines that bear his imprint, but in the thriving international presence that FAP is becoming, thanks to the collaborative efforts of the next generation and entire team.
January 12, 2024
The use of foamed polymers is extremely versatile, but the main thing is that all necessary technical requirements are met, specially in construction industry and as a striking example is a reflective insulation. Manufacturers of foamed polymers need to create materials that educate the final user, do not mislead him when choosing products for construction and repair, to force unscrupulous manufacturers to change their approach to production and product quality.
We all want to live in comfort and very often during construction or repair we install a “warm floor” system in our homes. Today, FAP would like to talk about the use of foamed polypropylene and polyethylene in this constructions.
What is reflective insulation for? How can a foam manufacturer not disappoint his customers? Can aluminium foil be used without a protective layer of transparent polymer in construction?
There are some reasons:
• Local overheating of the screed. As you know, the principle of operation of a "warm floor" system is quite simple. Heat from the heating element (water pipes or electric heaters) is transferred to the concrete screed, the concrete screed heats up and heats the coating on it.
It is the reflective layer of aluminum foil that contributes to the uniform heating of the screed and the floor covering, since the thermal conductivity of the foil is about 150-180 times higher than that of concrete and the foil heats up very quickly, evenly distributes heat over the entire space of concrete, without creating local overheating of the floor. The absence of aluminum foil as a reflective layer can cause that in some areas of the floor the heating element warms up much faster and absorb more heat, while in other areas there is no direct contact with the heating element. Ultimately, this can lead to cracking of the concrete screed.
• Reduced heat loss of the “warm floor” construction. PE or PP foam insulates the entire structure, preventing the heat goes down, since the coefficient of thermal conductivity of PE and PP foam with a thickness of 4-5 mm and a density of 25-30 kg/m3 is about 0.035 - 0.038 W/m2, which is approximately 1.5-2 times lower than that of concrete.
Many people mistakenly believe that it is the reflective foil that prevents the passage of heat down, acting as an insulator, but this is not correct. Unfortunately, even builders who have no idea about the principle of this action use only one aluminium foil as insulator without foamed polymer layer. As explained before, the thermal conductivity of aluminum foil is very high and it cannot be used as an insulator without having an air gap underneath, which is foam. Anyone who responsibly attended physics lessons at school has already understood that the foil fulfills exclusively the principle of convection and radiation.
Thus, the use of PE & PP foam with a reflective foil layer with a thickness of only 25-30 microns will significantly increase the efficiency of the "warm floor" system, reduce the heating time of the concrete screed and reduce heat loss.
The fact is that the reaction of an alkaline solution (cement) with aluminum leads to its destruction due to the displacement of hydrogen. After a while, the foil will simply dissolve and only the foamed polymer will remain. For this reason, there will no longer be a uniform distribution of heat over the concrete screed, which can lead to local overheating and cracks. Therefore, it is extremely important to use a foil with a protective polymer layer on the reflective side in the lamination of foamed polypropylene or polyethylene, since the protective polymer layer will not allow the reaction between the foil and the alkaline solution.
We are waiting for you at Plast Eurasia 2023
Come and visit Stand 11A-101 / 📅 22-25 November 2023
Our local agent Baris Argaman & Sales Director of FAP Francesco Poli will be available to present you our cutting-edge technology for foam production, converting by FAP & VELA by FAP, will tell about 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀, 𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗾𝘂𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 we offer, also show the markets for foam materials often that few know about.
FAP, Your Foam Extrusion Partner 🌎
FAP team wishes all participants fruitful and efficient work!
FAP, a personal approach with an international vocation, since 1987.
🚀 We are waiting for you at PLASTIMAGEN® MÉXICO 🤝
Come and visit Stand 1948 / 📅 07-10 November 2023
Our agent Francisco Güemes will be available to present you our cutting-edge technology for foam production, converting by FAP & VELA by FAP, will tell about 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀, 𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗾𝘂𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 we offer, also show the markets for foam materials often that few know about.
FAP, Your Foam Extrusion Partner 🌎
FAP team wishes all participants fruitful and efficient work!
FAP, a personal approach with an international vocation, since 1987.
FAP is dedicated daily to the development of new solutions and innovative applications not yet present on the market, always trying to anticipate the needs of foam producers and the market. To meet the customers’ needs, and to ensure precise and complete answers, FAP has created an internal Italian Foam Centre to test granules and to produce special foam materials in little scale. During the last years numerous tests were carried out together with customers, producers of raw materials and research centers.
Thanks to the numerous requests in the recent months the samples of high-density polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) foam have been produced and tested, perfect for being thermoformed and laminated with the final use in various industrial sectors such as automotive, construction and food.
Furthermore, today the company is the protagonist of a courageous entrepreneurial choice. FAP invests over 5 million euros to build the site which provides the expansion of the new production area, that nowadays has become insufficient to manage the ever-increasing number of orders. Also, our Foam Centre will be expanded for research and development of expanded plastic materials in industrial scale, that has already solicited requests by companies all over the world including for example USA, Germany, Brazil, Chile, Saudi Arabia, France. The construction site will be completed in 2024.
"We collaborate with companies that work, produce and study polymers: today companies have the opportunity to carry out tests in our Italian Foam Centre in little scale, but not to continue experimenting on industrial production machines”, Fabrizio Poli explains. “We build these machines and we want to share our rich experience creating a line specially dedicated for tests in industrial scale. Moreover, this center will be used by our company for the study of new materials and to improve processes in terms of energy efficiency", continues Poli, who has already established relations with the Polytechnic of Milan for the evaluation of an innovative material that FAP patented. "We are talking about a replacement of polystyrene material for the food sector with 100% recyclable foam produced using 100% natural gas CO2", Poli concludes.
Recyclable PP foam production with blowing agent 100% CO2
Today in our Italian Foam Centre thanks to internal foam extrusion line we are testing a 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝘆𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗿 for the project Foaming low-density polyethylene with 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗯𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝗶𝗼𝘅𝗶𝗱𝗲 (CO2)🌍
P.S. The material is still very 🔥 as this video was made during the launch of the extrusion line.
Visit us at Plast Milano 2023
When: 5 - 8 September 2023, Milan, Italy
Where: Hall 15 B / Booth 145
See you soon! FAP team wishes all participants fruitful and efficient work!
FAP, a personal approach with an international vocation, since 1987.
We invite all our clients to contact us to get an entrance free ticket.
What are the most common technologies used in foam extruders for the production of non-cross linked physical expansion foam in polyethylene (or polypropylene)?
We can highlight 4 most famous technologies: Single Screw Foam Extruder, Tandem Foam Extruder, Twin Co-rotating Screws Foam Extruder & Twin Counter-rotating Screws Foam Extruder.
In the production process of expanded (foam) materials, factors of speed, pressure, temperature, cooling and mixing must be extremely precise in order to obtain perfect mixing combinations. Therefore, the equipment supplied with the foam machine and its crucial parts must be designed in order to have an extremely rapid and flexible response that allows instant optimization of what the foam production process requires.
And here are some of the reasons why FAP has chosen for over 35 years to design and construct 100% «Made in Italy» counter-rotating twin screw foam extruders. So we have decided to share with you and describe some of the great advantages of our foam extrusion lines.
- All components in granules are distributed at the entrance of the machine by the extremely precise gravimetric dosing station except the gas which is injected in the centre of the foam extruder machine.
- The foam machine never works "full mouth", the machine works in filling controlled by the flow rate of the dosing station and the speed of rotation of the screws. This process allows you to adjust the pressures of the mixture depending on the quantity and speed.
- The mixing is ensured by the mechanical work of the screw profiles which act by crushing the mixture at the point of contact of the screw profiles, and by reversing the mixture in the screw profiles, during the advancement of the mixing;
- The internal cooling is ensured by a circulation of water at controlled temperature, close to the screws and very reactive to the change of temperature setpoints!
All our machines are just like our children: as they "win" in competitions, we feel like proud parents, conscious of their prowess.
– FAP
| Thanks to the work of FAP team, we managed to achieve not only successful indicators in R&D field, to launch our new FAP VELA brand, but also to attract some new customers. After the vacation, we will be back full of energy and will continue to work this year even more successfully than ever before. Thanks to all our clients, partners and suppliers for the support and collaborations. For your requests: SALES@FAPITALY.COM We will reply to all emails when we return. |
FAP does not only produce advanced equipment for foam, our team also loves getting immersed into the process of physical foaming of polyethylene and polypropylene.
We also share our experience with our clients and partners, trying to teach everything we know and study ourselves. Spending a huge number of hours in our laboratory, we study all the nuances to make the technological process of foaming as simple and safe as possible for you.
Today we will analyse two rather serious hidden technological errors in the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) foam, which are not visible at first glance but can significantly affect the quality of products, the formation of defects and the efficiency of your production.
As for any kind of foamed polymers, physical foaming has its own nuances, and one of them is changes in the gas density in the polymer during and after foaming (expansion) due to its solubility.
Yes, after the production of the finished material, the expansion continues, since the gas is still hot and continues to expand. If this process is not properly controlled, it leads to many problems associated with the formation of cell wall destruction, the formation of bubbles on the material and, of course, the deterioration of its physical properties and its mechanical characteristics.
We know that many pipe insulation manufacturers have to face the problem of changing the internal diameter of the finished product due to wall expansion and subsequent deviation from the nomenclature requirements. Instead in the production of a packaging profile, the problem of excessive expansion can lead to a loss of profile geometry and, as a result, to the impossibility of using it due to poor fit. This will be a particularly big problem in the production of complex shaped profiles from physically foamed polyethylene, where it is necessary to achieve the most accurate geometric dimensions with minimal tolerances for deviations. The market is going in this direction very strongly and it would be very right strategy to compete in the field of complex figured profiles with the manufacturers of cross-linked foams XPE.
We faced a similar situation at one of client's factories, in the production of foamed pipe insulation, where during the degassing process the geometry changed either up or down, and the quality department often rejected entire batches of products. In this situation, the problem was solely in the wrong technological documentation, as well as in the methods of production and storage, since at another plant in the same region, operating on similar raw materials and identical equipment, such problems were reduced to almost zero.
What is the first reason of this main problem? The first and very serious error is that an improperly developed homogenization and melting process leads to excessive expansion of gas.
And this is a very big problem, especially in the production of foam insulation with complex shapes and tolerances or foam insulation, where a high modulus of elasticity is needed. We will not go into detail now on how this error affects the modulus of elasticity and sound insulation characteristics, if you need more information, you can contact to us.
The second reason follows from the first: overheating of the polymer mass and gas further increases the migration of GMS to the foam surface, creating an additional barrier to diffusion during the maturation of the foamed polymer.
This problem is 50% a consequence of the first technological error described above. The finished product (physically foamed polyethylene or polypropylene with gas like isobutane) requires a certain amount of time in the warehouse after manufacture before further use.
The degassing period depends on the thickness of the material, its density kg/m3, the number of meters in a roll, the temperature and humidity of the environment, the concentration and dosage of GMS, and the air exchange in the warehouse. The first and essential factor in the process of replacing gas with air is the migration of GMS to the surface of the foamed polymer.
This process occurs in any case, because GMS:
But with the wrong choice of GMS with a very low processing temperature and the wrong choice of melt and homogenization mode, you will greatly enhance this effect. This can be seen by the formation of a film or "crust" on the surface of the foam sometime after production, especially on foam with a small number of GSE (cells) per 1 cm2 and with large cells. This is due to the fact that, while migrating to the surface, GMS freezes, forming this same film and “crust” on the entire plane of the material, significantly complicating the degassing process.
We did a small test to see how the emulsifier volume affects the degassing rate on polyethylene (PE) foam of 4 mm and 10 mm thickness with a density of 18-20 kg/m3, adding GMS at 2% and 1.2% of the total throughput. The results confirmed the fact that a decrease in the GMS concentration leads to a faster replacement of gas by air by 20.2% due to a decrease in its concentration on the foam surface.
Of course, reducing the dosage of GMS is not the best way to shorten and normalize the terms of gas exchange and reduce the pressure inside the cell, we only focus your attention on the correct choice of GMS, its concentration, formulation and processing temperature in the process of foaming in order to prevent excessive migration of GMS to the surface of the foam and excessive pressure of the expanding gas in the cell of the foamed polymer.
In addition, the storage conditions of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) foam can also adversely affect the degassing period. Our tests on various materials with a thickness of 2 mm, 3 mm, 5 mm and 10 mm with a density of 18-20 kg / m3 show that the optimal temperature regime for storing foam finished materials of polyethylene and polypropylene is from 18 to 23 °C at a humidity of 30-40%.
For example, the degassing period (replacement of gas with air) of material in the form of rolls at a storage temperature of +10.3°C and a humidity of 38% is on average of 41.7% slower than the rate of degassing of a similar material during storage at +18.6°C and 30% of humidity.
Thus, an excess of residual gas significantly affects the further process of lamination of polyethylene and polypropylene foam with each other.
The fact is that when the foamed polymer is heated and melted with an air blade and a hot roll, the gas leaves the cells and expands sharply between the layers during lamination, preventing high-quality adhesion. Moreover, delamination may not be immediately noticeable, but occurs after a few hours as the gas expands and pressure is created between the layers.
FAP Srl is a member of AMAPLAST Italian Plastics and Rubber processing machinery and
moulds manufacturers’ association.
