At the forthcoming JEC World show in Paris, Munich-headquartered KraussMaffei will introduce its new iPul pultrusion machine for highly-filled fibre-reinforced composite components.

The new system uniquely combines the direct injection of the matrix material and the radius pultrusion process.

“The direct injection of the matrix material using a metering machine and an injection chamber offers clear technical and economic advantages compared with the typical market practice, where impregnation is generally effected by pulling the reinforcement through a bat,” says Josef Renkl, head of the company’s pultrusion development. “To date, pultrusion speeds are generally 0.5 to 1.5 metres a minute, but with the new iPul we are aiming for speeds of more than three metres a minute. This opens up completely new markets for pultrusion. In addition, the machine is able to manufacture not only straight but also curved profiles.”