Melt Bolt Thermocouple Sensors For Extruder LinesA user of extruders was experiencing unusually high temperature sensor failure of the melt bolt thermocouples used in their extruder lines causing an abnormally high amount of downtime and lost productivity.After careful investigation, Durex discovered that the customer was extruding glass fiber reinforced plastics. These types of harsh materials dramatically increase the abrasion and wear on the melt bolt sensor, causing it to wear away and fail. The solution was to use a proprietary wear coating developed by Durex called "Durexium." Multiple layers of titanium nitride and zirconium nitride are applied to the melt bolt surface in a PVD process. This coating provides a very high hardness as well as superior abrasion resistance providing up to 12 times the life of untreated temperature sensors in some applications. The customer retrofitted his extruder lines with Durexium coated melt bolt sensors and saw a dramatic reduction in downtime.
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