Your Extruder’s Best Friend (Plastic Technology, July 2010)...that’s quite a claim, yet it was made by one of the plastics industry’s most respected feed screw and extruder experts, Jim Frankland. Jim was referring to a polymer gear pump. Why would he say an extruder has a friend, let alone a best friend? Quite simply, anything that helps with the process is clearly a friend to the process.

So, how do you get to be a “best friend?” That is what this presentation is ultimately about. Join us as we touch on gear pumps as an often- indispensable aid to extrusion. We’ll look at some reasons why these amazing workhorses become necessary, then we’ll look to a gear pump primer including an in-plant video of the inlet and discharge pressure readouts and a quick word on pump-type selection.