ACM 5 NEX: Innovative Protection Concept for Small Batch Powder Coating Production
The classifier mills of the ACM series are reliable partners for ultra-fine grinding with integrated classifying of powder coatings. The new ACM 5 NEX offers numerous advantages of a simplified design – and is ATEX-compliant and tested for explosion protection.
Hosokawa Alpine, a leading supplier in the field of powder and particle processing and film extrusion, introduces the ACM 5 NEX classifier mill: pressureless design, cost-effective and explosion-proof solution for the powder coating industry. Powder coatings are used in many different ways in the industry; the starting point for their production are raw materials such as pigments, fillers, resins, etc. By specifying a recipe, the raw materials are mixed, extruded and then rolled out on a cooling belt and broken into chips. To grind the chips, the grinding system must be pressure-shock resistant as powder coatings of explosion classes ST1 & ST2 are explosive. The maintenance of technical explosion protection measures through inspection, servicing and maintenance must be regularly planned and implemented with additional costs as appropriate.
The design of the new ACM 5 NEX classifier mill was based on the following principle: The solution had to be cost-effective, low-maintenance, but above all safe in terms of explosion protection. The special innovation of the ACM 5 NEX concept, however, is that the system can be built in a pressureless design by avoiding effective ignition sources – this eliminates maintenance and inspections for pressure-shock-resistant system components and makes accessibility for cleaning even easier.
OPERATIONAL SAFETY FIRST AND FOREMOST
The top priority in the design of the ACM 5 NEX was the operational safety of the finished solution. The classifier mill is therefore not only ATEX-compliant, but has also been tested by the European certification company Bureau Veritas. The test confirms: no ignition with standard powder coatings. Cost efficiency was also a goal during development, so the customer’s savings are doubled with the ACM 5 NEX classifier mill. Due to the simplified design, the purchase price is lower than for pressure shock resistant systems. In addition, cleaning and maintenance can be carried out much faster – downtimes are thus reduced to a minimum. Numerous installations of the latest generation of ACM 5 NEX have already gone into operation worldwide.