Film Extrusion
Microlayer Films: New Uses for Hundreds of Layers
Early microlayer films gave an iridescent shimmer to decorative packaging. The newest films with hundreds and even thousands of layers are designed for gas barrier, uv blocking, electronic displays, and high-strength window-glass laminates. As applications grow, more processors want in on the action.
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Nine-Layer Blown Film: Why It's a Challenge, What It Takes to Succeed
Eight years after nine-layer blown films were first introduced, only a handful of processors have mastered the challenges of making them. Machine suppliers are now setting up lab lines that could make entry easier.
Read More50 Ideas That Changed Plastics
Very few readers of this issue can remember, or even imagine, what it was like when an injection molding machine did not have a screw, but only a smooth-bore plunger.
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Capacitance Thickness Gauges: New Designs Break Old Barriers
Economical, non-nuclear capacitance gauges are opening new markets in blown film鈥攑rimarily in barrier films, where they previously suffered serious shortcomings. New gauge designs, and new ways of mounting them, make capacitance technology much more flexible.
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New High-Performance Nylons For Automotive, Electronics, Packaging
Nylon producer Ems-Grivory America in Sumter, S.C., is reaching beyond its traditional product range to bring out new partially aromatic nylons that bridge the gap between standard engineering thermoplastics and high-performance specialty polymers.
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The Man Who Kept Stretching
It's not unusual for an entrepreneur to sell a company, wait the required non-compete period, and then start up virtually the same company all over again.
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MDO Films: Lots of Promise, Big Challenges
Machine-direction orientation is still discovering new market opportunities. But the technical difficulties are so great that some big projects never came of age. New equipment could make it easier.
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K 2004 Extrusion: Outputs Rise, Downstream Units Gain Flexibility
The show was packed with new equipment for pipe and profile, including extruders redesigned for higher outputs and/or lower cost, plus new ways to adjust die and calibrator diameters or switch dies and calibrators more quickly.
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Shhh ... Can You Hear the New Extruder Motors?
Silent, space-saving, energy-efficient, and high-torque, a new generation of ring-shaped motors is gaining a foothold in extrusion. A couple of hundred are already in use. Though most machine builders are reacting cautiously, adventurous processors are using them happily.
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K 2004 News Preview: Extrusion
At K 2004, at least a half-dozen European machine builders will show new direct-drive extruders running gearless—or nearly gearless—drives with substantially higher rpm and output rates than conventional extruders of the same size.
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