Attachment 1 - Specifications.pdf

Specifications

Cast + Blown Film Line with Options, Installation, and Training - Brand Name or Equal Product

Acquisition of a Pilot-Scale Combination Cast and Blown Film Line to decrease steps to commercialization of film formulations produced by USDA and collaborators/partners.

1. Background

The Industrial Pilot Plant is located at the WRRC in the Bioproducts Research Unit. The

Industrial Pilot Plant (IPL) needs to acquire a combination cast and blown film line to test formulations. The IPL is a multi-user facility used by BRU, partners, HPFR and open to others.

2. Requirements

3.1 General Requirements

The Contractor, as an independent contractor and not an agent of the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Western Regional Research Center (ARS WRRC) shall supply the necessary personnel, material and transportation needed for shipping, installation, and training.

3.2 Specific requirements

The contractor will provide the Cast+Blown Film Line and all components needed for a complete system as listed in the estimate provided. The following specifications must be met:

a. Must be the same manufacturer as our Collins Compounding unit at our industrial partner, SC Johnson Headquarters, so that formulations and processes are continuous and repeatable. This is necessary to support continuity of current research instrumentation operating parameters.

b. Research and Development time, materials and funds have already been invested in establishing operating parameters for our films on this equipment located at the manufacturer site in Germany. Thus, matching equipment will reduce the burden of time and cost due to operating parameter misalignment if using mismatched instrumentation.

c. Extruder must have mono blown film unit for processing of water-soluble resins and other thermoplastic materials.

d. Extruder must have a complete cast film unit.

e. Must be preferred industry standard for Research & Development projects in the plastics industry.

f. Reproducible experiments with small quantities of 2-3 lbs. of material – Small batch quantities save material, time, and equipment costs, enabling rapid iteration with many potential formulations and provides a quick working assessment of samples and processing conditions.

Obtaining reproducible tensile and barrier properties are crucial to obtaining a reliable understanding of how our materials will be scaled up in a commercial setting.

g. Test results on the equipment may be easily used for scaling projects, allowing a good prediction of industrial processes.

Specifications

h. Must have flexibility to allow conversion of cast line films to blown films – as was demonstrated when we performed our trial runs at the manufacturer site where we were able to shift production from cast to blown film in less than an hour while running.

i. Must be a modular unit.

1. Allows use for current and future projects and upgrades.

2. Allows upgrade to multi-layer line – Single-layer biopolymer films often possess poor barrier and/or mechanical properties. A multi-layer line would enable biopolymers to be processed as multi-layer films (e.g., layer 1 for mechanical properties, layer 2 for moisture barrier), resulting in superior performance that can compete with the performance of traditional plastics, while incorporating the renewable sourcing and end-of-life degradability advantage of biopolymers.

3. Allows upgrade to cast unit –Individual biopolymer formulations often demand specific processing conditions as a function of material characteristics such as melt viscosity and melt strength. A versatile unit that can process blown and cast films would enable researchers to match the film processing category (cast vs blown) according to the needs of a specific formulation. For example, an otherwise promising material with poor melt strength may process well as a cast film, while another material might need to be processed as a blown film to avoid pinholes and leakage of liquid products.

4. Allows upgrade with industry 4.0, data collection, monitoring and reporting using Visual

Fecon software.

j. User friendly interface – This feature allows the equipment can be run by new personnel with little training time involved. A user-friendly interface makes this equipment accessible to experienced and new users, and allows use by new personnel, student interns and experienced technicians making it intuitive operation. Monitors and instrument settings are up front on the monitor.

k. Small footprint, easy to maintain, fast cool-down – Maintenance and upkeep is essential to the longevity of polymer processing equipment. Many of the users in our unit will be novices or of intermediate skill, which requires straightforward maintenance protocols. This equipment has been designed to teach polymer processing to novices, and has relatively easy upkeep requirements, which is additionally aided by its small scale.

l. Short-change over times for material and process changes – Novel biopolymer compositions require rapid, iterative formulating and processing runs. A shortchange- over time accelerates the process by which processing, and formulation can be optimized in parallel.

Change-over at the last trial was done on was accomplished in 30 minutes.

m. Must have a stainless option for corrosion prevention when using potentially corrosive materials.

3.2.2 The contractor will have all knowledge, expertise, tools, and other items needed to ship, install, and train users on the equipment.

4.0 Installation, and Training must be included in the quote.