How our balls are produced? We’ll tell you the secret! - News

13 June 2022

How our balls are produced? We’ll tell you the secret!

The best and most common method to produce hollow plastic bodies is extrusion blow moulding. We also applythis technology to produce our balls. But how the polymer granules are transformed into balls? Let us initiateyou to the secret of manufacturing process!

Blow molding: how does it work?

Blow molding is an extrusion manufacturing technology during which a tubular preform is created from polymer granules. The final plastic product is created from this preform with the aid of the mould and air blown into it through the blowing pin. This brief explanation certainly doesn't tell much to the laity, thus , we need to digdeeper into the details to understand the technology better

Similar to other thermoplastic polymer processing technologies, the technology can be divided into three phases:

making the polymer formable,
shaping,
shape fixation.

The raw material may be any polymer that has the melt strength suitable for extrusion blow moulding. Most often, LDPE, HDPE, PP polymers are processed with this technology. (The raw materials are purchased from bigmanufacturers like MOL, BASF, Dupont, Aramco, Borealis, Sabic, Unipetrol, etc.)

At the start of production, the raw material (in granule form) - needs to be fed into the extruder, where the polymer melts the mass is similar to honey) so it becomes formable (malleable). Then the molten polymer is carried towards the extrusion die by the screw in the extruder.

This part of the technology is practically the same as other extrusion technologies (e.g.: production of plates, tubes, filaments), and also with the well-known injection moulding. The specialty of extrusion blow moulding is that the extrusion die is crosshead, where the material flow turns from horizontal to vertical, and the extruder produces a preform with the aid of a tool at the end of the machine.

In the next step, the formable preform takes the shape of the mould with the aid of the air blown into the mould through the blow pin (shaping) . By cooling the mould, the raw material hardens quickly and the finished product can be removedeasily (shape fixing).

This is how we do it!

Balls are manufactured at EURO-MATIC plant using equipment designed in-house, under most professional conditions, and with the highest level of automation.

VIDEO:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KuE62gg9QapWSpAyv1RC7I2INE4P7oCF/view?usp=sharing

We further developed the traditional extrusion blow moulding, as the production of balls requires special technology. In order to be able to serve our customers’ needs at the highest possible level, we have continuously developed this know-how in the past 60 years. As a result, our playben balls are reckon among premium category on the market and have become a benchmark in the last decades. The high quality of our industrial and coverballs made the top producer of balls on the market. Using safe materials - LDPE, HDPE, PP and PVDF - as raw materials during production, makes us capable offering the most suitable balls for any challenge.

We provide a large variety of sizes, ranging from the tiny 6.9 mm to the enormous 225 mm ball. For nearly 20 various diameters, we have the tooling for production.

Besides the blow moulding machines, we developed special ones with which the cover balls can be filled with water for example. Furthermore, we have invented a product that is completely unique and protected by patent. This is the so-called Self-Filling Ball, which automatically fills itself with water when used.

Our company's corporate culture places high importance on environmental responsibility, which is why we strive to produce as little waste as possible during production.

The plastic frame carrying the balls during production is definitely not a waste in our factory, but rather a valuable raw material that we can reuse during production.

Although our factory is extremely modern and production is almost entirely automated, our operators do quality checks to guarantee premium quality. Whatsmore, we randomly select playpen balls from production for quality check and subject them to much more stress during testing than what they would normally get since we compress the balls cyclically 20,000 times to half of their original diameter. If they do not burst after 20,000 compressions, the balls pass this extreme test..

VIDEO:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gwoWEigI8y8fkkBXmDxkOVUk92gXtqkD/view?usp=sharing

We have the capacity to produce up to 100 million perfect, high-quality balls annually in our manufacturing plant.

Learn more about our balls! →

Product

Industrial balls

Industrial balls offer an effective solution for covering various liquids in diverse industries.

Learn more

Operation

If a sufficient amount of balls are placed on a surface, they self-arrange side by side by floating on the surface of the liquid due to the low density of the air and plastic inside them. They create a coverage of 91% of the surface. The layer of balls isolates the liquid and separates it from its surroundings, i.e. significantly reduces their interaction with each other. In practice, with just one layer of EURO-MATIC balls has many advantages, making it suitable for a wide range of effective uses.

Energy saving

Due to the good thermal insulation capacity of the plastic and the air inside the ball, our product saves energy cost up to 75%, as the heat loss is significantly reduced. In addition, it is an important safety aspect that, due to the thermal insulation, the area around the tanks and pools does not get hot.

Evaporation reduction

All liquids evaporate, and as the temperature rises, evaporation becomes an increasingly rapid process and causes significant fluid loss that usually needs to be refilled. With the help of the balls, the rate of evaporation can be reduced by up to 90%, so much less liquid needs to be refilled. In many cases, the investment cost of the balls pays for itself in a short period of time, already from the avoided cost of compensating for fluid losses. In cases where lower humidity is important (e.g. due to drying of the workpiece), the return is even faster as higher productivity can be achieved.

Reduction of harmful gases and odors

In an industrial environment, the evaporation of liquids usually releases fumes and gases that are hazardous and harmful to the environment and the human body. For this reason, it is necessary to use a high-performance exhaust system that removes the harmful air from the production hall. By using industrial balls, direct and indirect cost savings can be achieved, and workers can work in improved and healthier working environment. Direct cost savings can be achieved with a drastic reduction in evaporation, thus significantly reducing the amount of harmful substances released into the environment, so the exhaust system can be operated at a much lower capacity, resulting in lower energy consumption, and in some cases, its ongoing operation can be even omitted. Indirectly, the heating costs of the plant can be reduced, as the air exchange in the hall is much lower. Furthermore, the often corrodent and highly corrosive vapor does not further damage the structure of the hall and the metal parts in operation, thus they require less maintenance and get a much longer service life.

A safer work environment

From the point of view of occupational safety, business, in which components are immersed in liquids with high temperatures and/or dangerous to human beings are considered to be a major hazard. The reason behind it is that in a case of any accident occurred at any time with a equipment or any object falling into the liquid present a great danger for safety of workers. To prevent such accidents, a cover layer that can be created with EURO-MATIC balls makes the perfect solution, as it almost completely prevents liquid from splashing. Additionally, by reducing the release of hazardous and non-hazardous, but unpleasant-smelling gases and vapors into the air, a healthier and more pleasant working environment can be achieved.

Reduction of oxygen absorption

By covering the surface of the liquid, the oxygen content of the air absorbs more slowly in the liquid because its open surface is reduced. This advantage can be exploited in industrial environments, because oxygen readily reacts with metals and acts as the engine for corrosion processes. If the dissolved oxygen level of the liquid decreases, the rate of corrosion processes slows down, and the service life of the parts increases. A layer of balls achieves 60% less dissolved oxygen content.

Easy to install and use

The installation of the balls is a very quick and easy process, with the investment costs being way lower than traditional covering methods. No maintenance is required after installation, so there are no operating and maintenance costs during its long service life. During use, it does not create obstacles to objects immersed or moving on the surface of the liquid. Hence, changes in the liquid level are not causing any problems. We can make a conclusion, that the simple layer formed with EURO-MATIC industrial balls is a flexible system, that performs its function almost unnoticed and does not cause any hindrances with the given technology.

Material of the industrial balls

	HDPE	PP	PVDF
Name	high density polyethylene	polypropylene	polyvinylidene fluoride
Density	0,95 g/cm³	0,91 g/cm³	1,78 g/cm³
Melting temperature point	130 °C	165 °C	174 °C
Application temperature range	-110 – 60 °C	0 – 100 °C	-30 – 150 °C
Strength	3	4	5
Izod impact strenght	5	4	4
Chemical resistance	4	5	5
Price	5	5	2
1 – bad, 2 – not good, 3 – acceptable, 4 – good, 5 – excellent