Air Products and Microtec to market turbo-mill for cryogenic grinding applications
Under the long-term agreement, Air Products—already a leading supplier of gases and cryogenic grinding equipment—will serve as the exclusive North American sales agent of Microtec's UTM technology. The technology is designed for the size reduction of materials utilizing liquid nitrogen as the refrigerant.
"This arrangement packages Microtec's superior grinding technology and manufacturing ability with Air Products' marketing, distribution, operations, and liquid nitrogen freezing and grinding expertise, creating a unique offering for customers," noted Dietmar Gamm, Air Products' U.S. marketing manager, Cryogenics. "The mill is a perfect complement to our existing cryogenic grinding capability and will allow us to better serve customers with finer particle size requirements," he said.
Gamm noted that Air Products can supply either a modular or turnkey cryogenic grinding system, depending on the customer's requirements.
The Microtec UTM turbo-mill is a versatile fine grinding system with a number of unique design features. The mill uses a combination of size reduction mechanisms, including impact, attrition and particle-particle collisions, and is capable of grinding rubber and difficult-to-grind polymers to much smaller particle sizes versus current, state-of-the-art impact mills.
Further describing the unique benefits of the system, Josef Fischer, Microtec's managing director, said, "Our technology provides users with a unique flexibility, allowing finest to coarse grinding at unique product quality across a wide range of applications."
In conjunction with the joint agreement, Air Products is also upgrading its cryogenic grinding laboratory and test facility located at its corporate headquarters in Allentown, Pa. Within the next few months, Air Products will be able to provide customers with full testing capabilities with the Microtec mill as well as more traditional impact type mills. These mills will enable Air Products to test grind product samples to determine particle size distribution and production rates, including the amount of liquid nitrogen needed to grind to different specifications.
Microtec GmbH was established in 1992 in Bobingen, Germany. Since then, the company's objective has been to offer to all industries the most innovative and competitively priced machines and systems for mechanical processing of powders. Microtec's Engineering Service comes complete with many years of worldwide experience and the use of its own technology, combined with the best available accessory technology to achieve optimal results for customers.
Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (www.airproducts.com) is the world's only combined gases and chemicals company. Founded more than 60 years ago, the business has annual revenues of $5.5 billion and operations in 30 countries. Air Products is a market leader in the global electronics and chemical processing industries, and a longstanding innovator in many industrial markets, including coatings, adhesives and polyurethanes. The company distinguishes itself through its 17,500 employees around the world, who build lasting relationships with their customers and communities based on understanding, integrity and passion.
Source: Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.
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