German chemicals giant BASF (Ludwigshafen; www.basf.com) has commissioned a new pilot line for the development and discontinuous production of polyurethane insulating panels at its Elastogran subsidiary in Lemförde / Germany. The flat laminating line enables the production of panels with a length of up to 10 metres using two different application techniques. The first, flat coating, means a material is applied into the open mould. In addition, the line also is capable of employing injection technology, delivering the PU into the closed mould using a newly developed mixing head.

The flat laminator is housed in a new, 900m² testing centre hall that will also become home to installations for the development of other PU applications, such as insulated pipelines. BASF said the pilot line allows it to implement a number of state-of-the-art projects, while also being able to replicate its customers’ production processes. PU rigid foam sandwich panels are predominantly used in refrigeration applications.