Plastic Processing
Thermoplastics
Processing Methods
• Extrusion
• Injection Moulding
• Blow molding (extrusion/Injection)
• Rotational molding
• Compression Moulding
• Vacuum forming
• Transfer Moulding
• Film Blowing
• Calendaring
Extrusion
• Extrusion is a process used to create objects
of a fixed, cross-sectional profile.
Extrusion
Extrusion
• A material is pushed or drawn through a die
of the desired cross-section.
• Plastics extrusion is a high volume
manufacturing process in which raw plastic
material is melted and formed into a
continuous profile.
Extrusion
• Extruded Products
Tubing, pipes, rods, rails, seals, and sheets or
films.
Extrusion
Hopper
Hopper
Function of the Hopper
Main Functions
Act as storage tank
Supply materials at a constant and desired rate in
to the barrel
Additional Functions
free heat materials
Mix Materials
Hopper
• How do Materials feed in to hoppers?
Manually
Using Auto loader
Hopper
Gearbox
Function
Rotate the screw at a desired speed
(generally 30 – 300 rpm)
Gearbox
Barrel
• Act as bridging unit between hopper and die
• Contains Heaters, Cooling fans
Barrel - Heaters
Barrel – cooling Fans
Barrel
• Designing Parameters
• Type of Materials & Its specific heat
• Friction betn barrel & Materials
• Rpm of the screw
Die
• Main Function of the die is to give a proper shape
• Design Parameters of the Die
Nature of the plastic
Presence of other additives
Processing Temperature
Processing pressure
swelling behavior of polymer
volume expansion coefficient of polymer & die materials
Die
Gauze Filter/ Wire mesh
Gauze Filter/ Wire mesh
Main Functions
• Remove Unwanted Materials
• Remove memory effect of polymers
Disadvantages
• Restricts the material flow
• High pressure build up at the end of screw
Breaker Plate
Main Function
To improve the stability of the gauze filter
Other Functions
Help to remove the memory effect of polymer
Breaker Plate
Screw
• Basically an extruder screw has three different
zones
1. Feeding Zone
2. Compression Zone
3. Metering Zone
Screw
Feeding Zone Compression Zone Metering Zone
Feeding Zone
• Function
Pick up cold material from the hopper & feed
in to compression Zone
Melting of the materials starts @ the end of
feeding zone.
Feeding Zone
• Design Parameters
1. The nature of the material
2. The shape of the polymer
3. The frictional behaviour between
- the material & the barrel
- the material & the screw
4. The specific heat & other material properties
Feeding Zone
• High constant flight depth in the feed zone
enables the coarse raw material pellets to enter
the barrel easily.
Compression Zone
• Functions
• Pickup raw materials from the feeding zone &
feed into next zones.
• Compact the materials.
• Melting of materials completed within this zone.
Compression Zone
• Compaction has dual Purpose
Squeeze any trapped air back into feed zone
Improve heat transfer through the reduced
thickness of the materials
Metering Zone
Functions
• Pickup the materials from & feed into Die
• Improves uniform temperature and pressure
distribution of the materials
Features
• Constant Screw depth
• Screw diameter of this section is greater than
feed sections screw diameter
Additional Zones
• Mixing Zone
• Venting Zone
• Additional metering Zones
• Additional compression zone
Screws
Screw
• L/D ratio
Length/ diameter ratio
Screw
• Lower L/D ratio screws are suitable for
extruding heat sensitive materials in low power
machines.
• High L/D screws are used for more extensive
mixing in large machines.
Screw
• L/D = 1.5 - Acrylic polymers, rPVC
• L/D = 2.5 - LDPE, PP, pPVC, PC
• L/D ~ 4 - HDPE, PET
Twin screw Extruder
Purposes
To improve the
- Output rates
- Mixing efficiency
- Heat generation
- Quality of the final products
- Etc...
Twin screw Extruder
Twin screw Extruder
Cooling Baths
Haul off /Take-up
Chill Roll stack for sheet Extrusion
Cutters
