Pipe, Profile & Tubing Extrusion

Thermoforming

50 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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A Plant Designed by Efficiency Experts

Hi-Tech Profiles Inc. in Pawcatuck, Conn., extrudes stock and custom medical and industrial profiles out of engineering resins that cost from $3 up to $35/lb.

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Elastomers

'Corrugator Vacuum Forming'

Molding separate hollow parts on a pipe corrugator is a home-grown technique used by a small number of processors. They discovered it offers higher outputs and numerous other advantages over blow molding for making tube-shaped, precision medical, automotive, and appliance parts. But the process has not yet realized what could be its greatest potential in closed-end parts like bottles.

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Film Extrusion

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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Film Extrusion

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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Biopolymers

Beyond Decking: Wood Composites Branch Out

Extruded decking still drives the embryonic wood-filled plastics market. But injection and compression molded wood composites are coming on strong, and extruded profiles are moving toward more complex millwork shapes.

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Additives

Recycled PET/PE Alloys Show Promise In Monofilament, Pallets, Pipe

Alloys of polyethylene and recycled PET were the highlight of the annual SPE Global Plastics Environmental Conference (GPEC) in Detroit in February.

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Convert PVC Pipe Dies to Make Fence Profiles

 If you are a PVC pipe extruder who wants to get into the burgeoning market for fence profiles, you have several new options from American Maplan.

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Additives

Cut the 'Chatter' in Window Profile Extrusion

A new class of heat stabilizer and an unusual lubricant are said to allow high-speed extrusion of rigid PVC window profiles without such common problems as "chatter" lines, die plateout, and frictional heat build-up in the calibrator.

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Process Cooling
Blending & Dosing