This is the traditional time of year for us to look at the past, present and future . . . by learning from the past, thinking in the present and planning for the future. We call them resolutions, and they are often promises to do something we haven’t done well or at all in the past.
Allan Griff shares some of the reasons we should be thankful for the creature comforts made possible by extrusion. He also reprises his 11 key principles of extrusion.
Most extruders are single-screw—about 90% is my best estimate. But that is misleading, because the twins are concentrated in two market areas—rigid PVC and compounding—and the twins for one application are very different from the other.
When an extrusion system is taken apart, there is a lot of sticky stuff, and it seems logical to remove it. Here are some techniques and tools you may want to consider using to do that; under certain circumstances, though, you may want to do nothing at all.
Equipment is a minor expense compared with materials, as articulated in the 6-1-2-1 rule of cost distribution: 60% materials, 10% equipment, 20% direct labor and 10% everything else, including power, packaging and insurance.
Allan Griff has been an indefatigable instructor of extrusion-related matters for decades. In this column, he recounts how the technology has evolved even as the fundamentals continue to apply. A summary of extrusion learning opportunities is included.
The show was too big to cover—"seeing it all” is as impossible as conversing with those talking mice that run rampant just a few miles from the convention center—but the event is unrivaled for meeting people and connecting with companies that make what we want to buy, or buy what we make.
