Extrusion Know How

Extrusion: Run Your Chevy Volt with Extruder Energy Savings—Part I

The electricity saved on a large extrusion line could power a number of Chevrolet Volts.

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dies

Extrusion: Start Up and Shut Down Properly

A key goal during startup and shutdown of the extruder is to prevent degradation of the polymer left in the extruder and downstream components such as screen changers, adapters, and dies.

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Extrusion: Take Care of Your Rolls So They Can Play Their Role

In the sheet extrusion ´óÏó´«Ã½, one of your most important manufacturing assets is your cooling rolls.

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Tooling: The Science of Profile Die Balancing

In our last column, we discussed the five things profile extruders need to know about profile die design—proper land length, land-length ratio, drawdown, considerations for sensitive materials, and decompression.

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Extrusion

Your Extruder's Best Friend

That's the melt pump, and its main purpose is to precisely control output to the die.

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Extrusion & Thermal Properties: Not Just for the Lab Guys

Do you really need to know how thermal properties of polymers affect extrusion?

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color

Single-Screw Mixing 101

Almost all processes using a single screw require some degree of mixing, whether it’s just to homogenize regrind with virgin resin or to mix in some color concentrate.

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dies

How to Spec a Flat Die

So it’s time for you to buy a new die for film or sheet.

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sustainability

How Much Regrind Can You Handle?

Most extrusion operations generate scrap, and in the case of sheet for thermoforming it can exceed 70% of total output.

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Extrusion

Don't Get Burned by Adapters & Flow Pipes

Does degraded or burned polymer seem to show up when you least expect it?

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Plastics Size Reduction