Jim Frankland President

Extrusion 9 Nov 2020

The Three Causes of Screw Wear

You run the risk of wasting time and money by not understanding what’s causing your screws to wear.

Extrusion Know How 8 Oct 2020

Extrusion: Solving Surging in Two-Stage Screws

This usually crops up when the two stages are not matched in output. The best solution is to install a pressure-adjusting valve at the discharge end of the extruder.

best practices 10 Sep 2020

Understanding the Effect of Polymer Viscosity on Melt Temperature

Every processor should get hold of the viscosity curves for the polymers they use or contemplate using in their operations, and learn how to read them.

sustainability 31 Aug 2020

Extrusion: Evaluating Screw Design for Multi-Material Recycling

Since many plastic products are made of a combination of materials with very different melting points, careful consideration must be given to designing screws when it comes time to recycle these products.

Extrusion Know How 20 Jul 2020

Extrusion: 'Melt-Blown' Fiber: What You Need to Know to Enter the Face Mask Market

Coronavirus pandemic has made extrusion processors curious about entering the face-mask market. But melt-blown fiber is very different from most other extrusion processes and requires specialized equipment.

best practices 12 Jun 2020

Extrusion: The Importance of Zone 1 Barrel Temperature

Tweaking the temperature settings of the first barrel zones may not yield the desired result. In fact, they may yield the opposite. Here’s why.

Extrusion 28 May 2020

What You Should Know About Miniature Extrusion Screws

Very small screws have become more common with the growth of additive manufacturing. Designing such screws requires balancing their output requirements with their torque strength.

PET Processing - Extrusion 10 Apr 2020

Extrusion: Important Polymer Melting Equations for Extrusion Processors

The more you know about what happens in a screw, the more you’ll be able to work with your supplier to optimize design.

Purging Compounds 25 Mar 2020

Try This Lower-Cost Purging Method

You might be able to reduce purging times and save money by scheduling processing jobs in order of the increasing material viscosity. But to get started, you'll need shear rate/viscosity curves for your polymers.

Extrusion 17 Mar 2020

How to Optimize Usage of Recycled Material

Processors need to “engineer” feeding properties similar to virgin pellets into their regrind to efficiently and economically utilize more of their scrap.