Plastic Extrusion Process

PLASTIC EXTRUSION PROCESS
PLASTIC EXTRUSION:
Plastics extrusion is a continuous high-volume manufacturing process,
in which raw plastic is melted and formed into a continuous
profile. This process starts by feeding plastic material (pellets,
granules, flakes or powders) from a hopper into the barrel of the
extruder. The material is gradually melted.
Mechanical energy generated by turning screws and by heaters

arranged along the barrel. The molten polymer is then forced into a
die, which shapes the polymer into a shape that hardens during
cooling.
Process Descriptions:
In the extrusion of plastics, the raw compound material is commonly in
the form of hurdles (small beads, often called resin) that are gravity
fed from a top mounted hopper into the barrel of the extruder.
Additives such as colorants and UV inhibitors (in either liquid or pellet
form) are often used and can be mixed into the resin prior to arriving
at the hopper. The extruder technology though it differs in that it is
usually a continuous process.
While pultrusion can offer many similar profiles in continuous lengths,

usually with added reinforcing, this is achieved by pulling the finished
product out of a die instead of extruding the polymer melt through a
die.
The material enters through the feed throat (an opening near the rear
of the barrel) and comes into contact with the screw. The rotating
screw (normally turning at e.g 120 rpm) forces the plastic beads
forward into the heated barrel. The desired extrusion temperature is
rarely equal to the set temperature of the barrel due to viscous heating
and other effects. In most processes, a heating profile is set for the
barrel in which three or more independent PID-controlled heater zones
gradually increase the temperature of the barrel from the rear (where
the plastic enters) to the front. This allows the plastic beads to melt
gradually as they are pushed through the barrel and lowers the risk of
overheating which may cause degradation in the polymer.
Extra heat is contributed by the intense pressure and friction taking
place inside the barrel. In fact, if an extrusion line is running certain
materials fast enough, the heaters can be shut off and the melt
temperature maintained by pressure and friction alone inside the
barrel. In most extruders, cooling fans are present to keep the
temperature below a set value if too much heat is generated. If forced
air cooling proves insufficient then cast-in cooling jackets or blowers
are employed.
At the front of the barrel, the molten plastic leaves the screw and
travels through a screen pack to remove any contaminants in the melt.
The screens are reinforced by a breaker plate (a thick metal puck with
many holes drilled through it) since the pressure at this point can
exceed 5,000 psi (34 MPa). The screen pack/breaker plate assembly
also serves to create back pressure in the barrel.
Back pressure is required for uniform melting and proper mixing of the
polymer, and how much pressure is generated can be “tweaked” by
varying screen pack.
After passing through the breaker plate molten plastic enters the die.
The die is what gives the final product its profile and must be designed
so that the molten plastic evenly flows from a cylindrical profile, to the
product’s profile shape. Uneven flow at this stage can produce a
product with unwanted Plastic extruder cut in half to show the
components residual stresses at certain points in the profile which can
cause warping upon cooling. A wide variety of shapes can be created,
restricted to continuous profiles.
The product must now be cooled and this is usually achieved by pulling
the extrudate through a water bath. Plastics are very good thermal
insulators and are therefore difficult to cool quickly. Compared to steel,
plastic conducts its heat away 2,000 times more slowly. In a tube or
pipe extrusion line, a sealed water bath is acted upon by a carefully
controlled vacuum to keep the newly formed and still molten tube or
pipe from collapsing. For products such as plastic sheeting, the cooling
is achieved by pulling through a set of cooling rolls. For films and very
thin sheeting, air cooling can be effective as an initial cooling stage.
Plastic extruders are also extensively used to reprocess recycled plastic

waste or other raw materials after cleaning, sorting and/or blending.
This material is commonly extruded into filaments suitable for
chopping into the bead or pellet stock to use as a precursor for further
processing.
Extrusion Screw Details:
There are five possible zones in a thermoplastic screw. Since
terminology is not standardized in the industry, different names may
refer to these zones. Different types of polymer will have differing
screw designs, some not incorporating all of the possible zones.
Most screws have these three zones:
 Feed zone (also called the solids conveying zone): this zone feeds
the resin into the extruder, and the channel depth is usually the same
throughout the zone.
 Melting zone (also called the transition or compression zone): most
of the polymer is melted in this section, and the channel depth gets
progressively smaller.
 Metering zone (also called the melt conveying zone): this zone melts
the last particles and mixes to a uniform temperature and composition.
Like the feed zone, the channel depth is constant throughout this zone.
In addition, a vented (two-stage) screw will have: Decompression
zone: In this zone, about two-thirds down the screw, the channel
suddenly gets deeper, which relieves the pressure and allows any
trapped gases (moisture, air, solvents, or reactants) to be drawn out
by vacuum.
Second metering zone: This zone is similar to the first metering

zone, but with greater channel depth. It serves to repressurize the
melt to get it through the resistance of the screens and the die. Often
screw length is referenced to its diameter as L:D ratio. For instance, a
6-inch (150 mm) diameter screw at 24:1 will be 144 inches (12 ft)
long, and at 32:1 it is 192 inches (16 ft) long. An L:D ratio of 25:1 is
common, but some machines go up to 32:1 for more mixing and more
output at the same screw diameter.
Two-stage (vented) screws are typically 36:1 to account for the two
extra zones.
Each zone is equipped with one or more thermocouples or RTDs in the

barrel wall for temperature control. The “temperature profile” i.e., the
temperature of each zone is very important to the quality and
characteristics of the final extrudate.
Thermoplastic Material in Extrusion:
Typical plastic materials that are used in extrusion include but are not
limited to:
 Polyethylene (PE),
 Polypropylene (PP),
 Acetal,
 Acrylic,
 Nylon (polyamides),
 Polystyrene (PS),
 Polyvinyl chloride (PVC),
 Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS)
 Polycarbonate (PC)
EXTRUSION & TYPES:
Sheet/film extrusion is used to extrude plastic sheets or films that

are too thick to be blown. There are two types of dies used: T-shaped
and coat hanger. The purpose of these dies is to reorient and guide the
flow of polymer melt from a single round output from the extruder to a
thin, flat planar flow. In both die types ensure constant, uniform flow
across the entire cross sectional area of the die. Cooling is typically by
pulling through a set of cooling rolls (calender or “chill” rolls). In sheet
extrusion, these rolls not only deliver the necessary cooling but also
determine sheet thickness and surface texture. Often co-extrusion is
used to apply one or more layers on top of a base material to obtain
specific properties such as UV-absorption, texture, oxygen permeation
resistance, or energy reflection.
A common post-extrusion process for plastic sheet stock is

thermoforming, where the sheet is heated until soft (plastic), and
formed via a mold into a new shape. When vacuum is used, this is
often described as vacuum forming. Orientation (i.e. ability/ available
density of the sheet to be drawn to the mold which can vary in depths
from 1 to 36 inches typically) is highly important and greatly affects
forming cycle times for most plastics.
Extruded tubing, such as PVC pipes, is manufactured using very

similar dies as used in blown film extrusion. Positive pressure can be
applied to the internal cavities through the pin, or negative pressure
can be applied to the outside diameter using a vacuum sizer to ensure
correct final dimensions. Additional lumens or holes may be introduced
by adding the appropriate inner mandrels to the die.
Multi-layer tubing applications are also ever present within the

automotive industry, plumbing & heating industry and packaging
industry.
Over jacketing extrusion allows for the application of an outer layer

of plastic onto an existing wire or cable. This is the typical process for
insulating wires.
There are two different types of die tooling used for coating over a
wire, tubing (or jacketing) and pressure. In jacketing tooling, the
polymer melt does not touch the inner wire until immediately before
the die lips. In pressure tooling, the melt contacts the inner wire long
before it reaches the die lips; this is done at a high pressure to ensure
good adhesion of the melt. If intimate contact or adhesion is required
between the new layer and existing wire, pressure tooling is used. If
adhesion is not desired/necessary, jacketing tooling is used instead.
Co-extrusion is the extrusion of multiple layers of material
simultaneously. This type of extrusion utilizes two or more extruders to
melt and deliver a steady volumetric through put of different viscous
plastics to a single extrusion head (die) which will extrude the
materials in the desired form. This technology is used on any of the
processes described above (blown film, over jacketing, tubing, sheet).
The layer thicknesses are controlled by the relative speeds and sizes of
the individual extruders delivering the materials.
In many real-world scenarios, a single polymer cannot meet all the

demands of an application. Compound extrusion allows a blended
material to be extruded, but coextrusion retains the separate materials
as different layers in the extruded product, allowing appropriate
placement of materials with differing properties such as oxygen
permeability, strength, stiffness, and wear resistance.
Extrusion coating is using a blown or cast film process to coat an

additional layer onto an existing roll stock of paper, foil or film. For
example, this process can be used to improve the characteristics of
paper by coating it with polyethylene to make it more resistant to
water. The extruded layer can also be used as an adhesive to bring
two other materials together.
Extrusion Compounding:
Compounding extrusion is a process that mixes one or more polymers

with additives to give plastic compounds. The feeds may be pellets,
powder and/or liquids, but the product is usually in pellet form, to be
used in other plastic-forming processes such as extrusion and injection
molding. As with traditional extrusion, there is a wide range in machine
sizes depending on application and desired throughput.
While either single- or double-screw extruders may be used in

traditional extrusion, the necessity of adequate mixing in compounding
extrusion makes twin-screw extruders all but mandatory.
There are two sub-types of twin screw extruders: co-rotating and

counter-rotating. This nomenclature refers to the relative direction
each screw spins compared to the other. In co-rotation mode, both
screws spin either clockwise or counter clockwise; in counter-rotation,
one screw spins clockwise while the other spins counter clockwise. It
has been shown that, for a given cross sectional area and degree of
overlap (intermeshing), axial velocity and degree of mixing is higher in
co-rotating twin extruders. However, pressure build up is higher in
counter-rotating extruders.
Application or some product details:
Extrusion produces items such as pipe/tubing, weather stripping,

fencing, deck railings, window frames, plastic films and sheeting,
thermoplastic coatings, and wire insulation

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PLASTIC EXTRUSION PROCESS

Mechanical energy generated by turning screws and by heaters

While pultrusion can offer many similar profiles in continuous lengths,

Plastic extruders are also extensively used to reprocess recycled plastic

Most screws have these three zones:

Second metering zone: This zone is similar to the first metering

Each zone is equipped with one or more thermocouples or RTDs in the

Thermoplastic Material in Extrusion:

Sheet/film extrusion is used to extrude plastic sheets or films that

A common post-extrusion process for plastic sheet stock is

Extruded tubing, such as PVC pipes, is manufactured using very

Multi-layer tubing applications are also ever present within the

Over jacketing extrusion allows for the application of an outer layer

In many real-world scenarios, a single polymer cannot meet all the

Extrusion coating is using a blown or cast film process to coat an

Compounding extrusion is a process that mixes one or more polymers

While either single- or double-screw extruders may be used in

There are two sub-types of twin screw extruders: co-rotating and

Extrusion produces items such as pipe/tubing, weather stripping,

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