General Features of Single Screw Extrusion

Basically an extruder screw has three different zones. 

The pressure build-up which occurs along a screw is illustrated in Fig. 4.2. The lengths of the zones on a particular screw depend on the material to be extruded. With nylon, for example, melting takes place quickly so that the compression of the melt can be performed in one pitch of the screw. PVC on the other hand is very heat sensitive and so a compression zone which covers the whole length of the screw is preferred. 

As plastics can have quite different viscosities, they will tend to behave differently during extrusion. Fig. 4.3 shows some typical outputs possible with different plastics in extruders with a variety of barrel diameters. This diagram is to provide a general idea of the ranking of materials - actual outputs may vary 25% from those shown, depending on temperatures, screw speeds, etc. 

In commercial extruders, additional zones may be included to improve the quality of the output. For example there may be a mixing zone consisting of screw flights of reduced or reversed pitch. The purpose of this zone is to ensure uniformity of the melt and it is sited in the metering section. Fig. 4.4 shows some designs of mixing sections in extruder screws. 

The venting works because at a typical extrusion temperature of 250°C the water in the plastic exists as a vapour at a pressure of about 4 MN/m. At this pressure it will easily pass out of the melt and through the exit orifice. Note that since atmospheric pressure is about 0.1 MN/m the application of a vacuum to the exit orifice will have little effect on the removal of volatiles. 

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