Plastics Extrusion

Extrusion is a continuous process through which parts of a fixed cross-sectional profile are made. Material is fed through a hopper into an extruder, essentially a rotating screw surrounded by a heated barrel, where it is mixed, melted and pumped through a die. The die gives the part its shape. Types include film extrusion, sheet extrusion, pipe, profile and tubing extrusion.

New Blown-Film Cooling Technologies Set to Debut at NPE2024
Film Extrusion

New Blown-Film Cooling Technologies Set to Debut at NPE2024

Cooling specialist Addex to roll out new auto-profiling air ring for rotating dies, and new single-plenum air ring.

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ESSENTIAL READING

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How to Select the Right Tooling for Pipe Extrusion

In pipe extrusion, selecting or building a complementary set of tooling often poses challenges due to a range of qualitative factors. Here’s some guidance to help you out.  

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The Importance of Barrel Heat and Melt Temperature

Barrel temperature may impact melting in the case of very small extruders running very slowly. Otherwise, melting is mainly the result of shear heating of the polymer.

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Single vs. Twin-Screw Extruders: Why Mixing is Different

There have been many attempts to provide twin-screw-like mixing in singles, but except at very limited outputs none have been adequate. The odds of future success are long due to the inherent differences in the equipment types.

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Extrusion

Troubleshooting Screw and Barrel Wear in Extrusion

Extruder screws and barrels will wear over time. If you are seeing a  reduction in specific rate and higher discharge temperatures, wear is the likely culprit.   

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Looking to Run PCR on a Single Screw? Here’s What to Keep in Mind

Just drop it in and mix it up? Sorry, there’s a lot more to it than that. Here is some of what you need to consider.  

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Extrusion

What to Know About Your Materials When Choosing a Feeder

Feeder performance is crucial to operating extrusion and compounding lines. And consistent, reliable feeding depends in large part on selecting a feeder compatible with the materials and additives you intend to process. Follow these tips to analyze your feeder requirements.

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Shuttle Mold System
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Guill - World Leader in Extrusion Tooling

Latest Extrusion News And Updates

Extrusion

SPE Extrusion Holding Screw Design TopCon

June conference to focus on single- and twin-screw design for all extrusion processes.  

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Extrusion

Freudenberg Medical Breaks Ground on Second Costa Rica Production Facility

The $25 million investment will quadruple the manufacturing footprint for high-volume, minimally invasive catheters with injection molding and extrusion capabilities.

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Film Extrusion

Bandera to Run 5-Layer Blown Film Line at NPE2024

Italian machine builder bucks trend among blown film suppliers to run production line in Orlando, May 6-10.  

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Extrusion

Davis-Standard Expands Global Service Capabilities

Enhanced capabilities are designed to support all equipment manufactured by Davis-Standard and its subsidiaries.  

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Film Extrusion

Electric Roller Suited for High-Temp Web Applications

Billed as “game-changing” product to enhance process control and efficiency.  

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Extrusion

Low-Smoke, Non-Halogen Polyolefinic Compound for Armored Cables

Avient’s latest addition to its ECCOH portfolio is designed to prevent environmental stress cracking in low- and medium-voltage cable sheathing.  

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Blending Revolution
Konica Minolta CM-36dG
Plastics Recycling Latam
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Featured Posts

Maximize the Cooling Capacity of Your Extrusion Line

Maximizing output in extrusion requires a thorough understanding of not only the cooling requirements of the extruder but of the extrudate as well.  

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How Polymer Melts in Single-Screw Extruders

Understanding how polymer melts in a single-screw extruder could help you optimize your screw design to eliminate defect-causing solid polymer fragments.  

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sustainability

Film Extrusion: Boost Mechanical Properties and Rate of Composting by Blending Amorphous PHA into PLA

A unique amorphous PHA has been shown to enhance the mechanical performance and accelerate the biodegradation of other compostable polymers PLA in blown film.

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Film Extrusion

Breaking the Barrier: An Emerging Force in 9-Layer Film Packaging

Hamilton Plastics taps into its 30-plus years of know-how in high-barrier films by bringing novel, custom-engineered, nine-layer structures resulting from the investment in two new lines.

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Is a Gear Pump Right for Your Single-Screw Operation

As with everything else, there are pros and cons, but more of the former. They provide processors higher rates while decreasing the temperature of the extrudate while enabling downgauging.    

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Extrusion

Use Interactive Production Scheduling to Improve Your Plant's Efficiencies

When evaluating ERP solutions, consider the power of interactive production scheduling to effectively plan and allocate primary and secondary equipment, materials and resources on the overall production capacity of the business and conclude that this is a key area that cannot be overlooked.  

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Realationships
RoyAlloy Stainless Mold Base Steel
Vacuum conveying powders to extruders compounding
mold, mould track, digital tracking, molding

FAQ: Extrusion

However, there are actual limits on increasing output as L/D is increased. Usually these limits are due to the inability of the feed section to deliver more polymer. On smaller-diameter screws, that limit often is determined by screw strength. On small screws you can only go so deep in screw channels before the screw is over torqued and fails. On larger extruders, the efficiency of feeding decreases as the channels get deeper until there is no further increase in output.

There are four main things to consider in selecting the correct stack for your application: the overall cooling capacity, the products to be processed, the mechanical capability, and the rolls’ internal design. Considering just the cooling capacity, the top roll is there to set the sheet thickness as well as its uniformity.

One of the most useful evaluations is the relatively simple calculation of drag flow. Drag flow is simply half the volume of one turn of the metering section per second at a specific screw rpm, which, when multiplied by a units conversion and the melt specific gravity of the polymer, is a very accurate approximation of the output in lb/hr at no head pressure.

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Vecoplan
RoyAlloy Stainless Mold Base Steel
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