best practices
Benchmark Your Extruders For Quicker Processing Fixes
Not recognizing output reductions and resolving them quickly can cost a lot of money. Benchmarking your machines will help.
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On Site: Pexco Takes a Two-Pronged Approach to Growth
Organic growth and growth via acquisition have combined to make this processor one of the leaders in custom profile extrusion.
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How to Use Commercial Purging Compounds in Extrusion
CPCs are considered most often for injection molding. However, they also can provide the same benefits to extrusion processors.
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Avoid Those Devilish ‘Angel Hairs’
Angel hairs wreak havoc on plastics processing: clogging filters, plugging conveying lines, causing feed problems at the blender, and jamming up machine throats. Here's how to prevent their formation.
Read MoreShort Shots Redux
Deliberately making a short shot permits you to do a scientific molding viscosity curve. It will also prevent you from damaging the mold by overpacking if you set shot size incorrectly.
Read MoreThe Truth About Barrel Heating
The main purposes of the heaters are to melt the polymer that remains in the barrel at cold startup, to assist in forming the initial melt, and to “trim” the barrel temperatures for specific purposes such as improving feed rate.
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Boost Performance, Speed, Economy with Servo-Controlled Welding
Ultrasonic welding is one of the most widely used processes for bonding polymers, valued for its speed, flexibility, and low cost.
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Why—and How—to Baseline Your Extruder
If you don’t baseline your extruder, then how are you going to set realistic expectations for its performance? Here's how to get going.
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Where Does Shear Heating Occur? Here’s How to Find Out
One of the least understood yet most important concepts is viscous dissipation, which is the shearing or stretching of the polymer between the rotating screw and stationary barrel, causing heat to develop in the material.
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Automation & Waste Reduction: A Medical Molder's Efficiency
Vision Technical Molding in Manchester, Conn., doesn’t believe in standing still.
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