Monforts Fits Larger Montex 8500 In Restricted Space
Monforts engineering know-how were called upon to meet the complex and unusual specifications for a recent installation of a new Montex 8500 stenter line at Curt Bauer’s plant in Germany. Curt Bauer opted for the new Montex 8500 line with a working width of 3.2 metres equipped with the MonforClean heat recovery and exhaust air purification system.
According to Monforts, the Montex stenter remains unmatched in terms of its robustness and long service life and with MonforClean technology, the waste heat from the drying process is used to pre-heat the drying air. “This results in a radical reduction in the conventional heat supply required, compared to full gas and thermal oil heating and energy savings of up to 40 per cent are achieved compared to conventional stenters,” Monforts said.
The challenge for Monforts engineers at the plant was how to fit the significantly larger machine into the available space of the old stenter without restricting the area required for docking operations. The special multi-level configuration that Monforts designers and Curt Bauer’s team devised in order to meet these requirements involved raising all of the line’s drying zones. They now have a combined length of over 28 metres on scaffolding platforms, to enable the ground floor space below them to continue to be fully utilised.
The next challenge involved configuring the MonforClean system without having to make any costly changes to the roofing structure.
The old stenter was dismantled and scrapped while production was ongoing, followed by the immediate installation of the foundations and the erection of the scaffolding for the dryer section.
“We call the design of such customised machine layouts to fit into very confined spaces the shoehorn method,” adds Frank Breuer, Technical Project Manager at Monforts.”
