I’ve talked in past columns about the four evils of overheating: Polymer degradation, cooling problems, sizing problems and the effect on additives. Summertime seems like a good time to revisit and expand on this theme.
To estimate the value of a used extrusion line, invoke the rule of thirds: Offer the seller one-third of the cost of a new line similar to the used one and set aside another third to fix what’s broken and for shipment expenses. The final third is your reward for buying used.
What did I learn at ANTEC last week in Anaheim, CA? That nano-materials should not be relegated just to special-use cases, that India has huge potential for plastics technology and much more.
More than 120 papers related to extrusion will be presented at the Society of Plastics Engineers’ Annual Technical Conference (ANTEC) in Anaheim, CA, next month. Here is a handy guide to the program.
Our machines may have a lot of information on them, or none at all. Get it into your hard drives while you can, before it disappears or you can’t read it reliably any more. This is what you may find.
When monitoring the vital signs of the extrusion process—melt temperature, melt pressure and motor load—it’s critical to know where you are measuring, what to expect and what may throw off the results.
In the extrusion process, melt temperature is the most important controller of gloss. The hotter, the better, but beware discoloration and brittleness that may appear if the surface gets too hot.
