Together with our partner Kaibel & Sieber, we delivered seven complete production lines for the production of pipe insulation to a customer in the USA in 2006. Now an expansion was needed.

Capacity expansion

From the very first delivery, the focus was on easy expandability of production capacities. For example, free space was reserved for the installation of additional production lines. The current expansion in 2020 involves one line for small pipe insolation shells and one line for large pipe shells. The part which Münstermann supplies consists of a fibre collecting drum and a curing oven per line.

Improvements

Fourteen years is a long time. Since then, the plants have been running without any noticeable wear and tear to the satisfaction of the customer (control by interim inspections). This is despite the fact that a furnace for small pipe shells produces a pipe shell approximately every 7 seconds. With a 3-shift operation!

As one can imagine, the new plants nevertheless introduced a large number of improvements compared to the old plants. Some highlights:

• The insulation of the inlet, outlet and underneath the oven has been improved, which saves energy and improves the curing process.
• The energy balance of the chain circulation has been reduced and the accessibility of the chain lubrication system is now also possible during operation.
• Automated volume flow monitoring in the exhaust air system for safe process conditions in the oven.
• Circulating fans with optimized cooling system for extended lifetime of the motors and bearings as well as a mounting aid for maintenance work.

Kaibel & Sieber as general contractor is responsible for

The complete integration of the entire plant from the take-over of the unformed raw fibre to the ready-to-sell pipe shell insulation, which is only packed after quality control, with the following partial functions:

• winding the raw fleece onto the core (the core determines the inner diameter of the pipes),
• the transfer of the pipe shells from the curing oven,
• the grinding of the surface,
• the pulling of the cores from the pipes,
• the trimming to the nominal length
• and the slitting and jacketing of the pipe.