Germany’s Coperion (Stuttgart; www.coperion.com) has opened what it claims to be the world’s largest compounding test centre. Located in Stuttgart, the new facility replaces an existing test centre and can accommodate up to 100 customer trials per year. It is equipped with 20 different “ZSK” extruders with throughput rates ranging from 10 to 3,000 kg/hour, and provides feedstock metering units covering all possible throughput rates for materials of widely varying handling characteristics, the company said. The centre has a 2,700 m² footprint and floor space of 4,500 m² on three levels, and includes an analytical laboratory.

Coperion has two other compounding test centres, in Ramsey, New Jersey / USA and Nanjing / China, and it also operates a bulk material test centre in Weingarten / Germany.