Extrusion Know How
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Screw Design Tips to Boost Productivity
In this collection of articles, two of the industry’s foremost authorities on screw design — Jim Frankland and Mark Spalding — offer their sage advice on screw design...what works, what doesn’t, and what to look for when things start going wrong.
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What You Need to Know About the Design and Operation of Maddock Mixers
Designed properly, all entering solid polymer fragments and certain types of PE gels entering the Maddock mixer can be trapped and dispersed into the matrix resin. But many are not properly designed. Here’s what to look out for.
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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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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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Stop Shopping for a 'Jack of All Trades' Extruder
Some processors try to find “fits all” extruders to cover all processing possibilities. But you’d have to grossly overpower it to achieve this, and that’s expensive up front and will result in inefficiencies over time.
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EXTRUSION: Melting 101
Learn the basics on how polymer melts in a single screw. Barrel temperature plays less of a role than you might think.
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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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Optimizing Barrel Temperatures for Single-Screw Extruders
If barrel temperatures are set correctly and screw design is optimized, the extruder will be operating at peak performance, providing maximum profitability. If not, bad things can happen impacting quality and profitability.
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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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Roll Cooling: Understand the Three Heat-Transfer Processes
Designing cooling rolls is complex, tedious and requires a lot of inputs. Getting it wrong may have a dramatic impact on productivity.
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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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