Melt temperature extrusion

Polymer-melt travels from the extruder to the head through an adapter. The internal design of the adapter should be streamlined to allow smooth flow. Conical reductions should, thus, be made at a maximum angle of 30°. The adapter should be equipped with a heater band to prevent cooling of the melt and also alleviate the need for overheating the melt in the extruder. Melt viscosity is a strong function of the melt temperature. Extrusion rate (the volume of the resin extruded per unit time) varies with viscosity so any variation in melt viscosity will be reflected in the extrusion rate. It is important to preheat the adapter by using the heater band to prevent solidification of the initial melt on its interior surface, which can result in excessive pressure build up. 

Another example of static SIMS used in a more quantitative role is in the analysis of extmded polymer blends. The morphology of blended polymers processed by extrusion or molding can be affected by the melt temperature, and pressure, etc. The surface morphology can have an effect on the properties of the molded polymer. Adhesion, mechanical properties, and physical appearance are just a few properties affected by processing conditions. 

For extrusion and blow moulding the polysulphones used are of higher molecular weight. Melt temperatures for blow moulding are of the order of 300-360°C with mould temperatures about 70-95°C. 

Polyaryl ether ketones may be processed on conventional injection moulding and extrusion equipment, providing sufficiently high temperatures can be achieved. Melt temperatures required are typically 370°C for unreinforced PEEK, 390°C for reinforced PEEK and both unreinforced and reinforced PEK and unreinforced PEEKK, and 410°C for reinforced PEEKK. For the latter material a temperature profile from feed zone to nozzle would be... 

Extrusion conditions = 1.25 mil film blown at 2 and 1 blow up ratio using 63.5 mm, 20D smooth bore extruder, die gap 80 mil, melt temperature 193°C. 

The same two blends as in the extrusion tests were injection molded at two different melt temperatures with an Engel ES 200/40 injection molding machine (Table 1). Prior to the injection molding the blends were dried overnight at 80°C. 

Preliminary tests were made on melt mixed blends of PP and LCP to study the effect of processing temperature on the shape and size of the dispersed LCP phase. Extrusion experiments were made below as well as above the melting temperature of the LCP. Two different polypropylenes were tested to determine the effect of the viscosity of the matrix on the final morphology. 

Most of the compounds were extrusion compounded in a conical, partially intermeshing, counter rotating twin screw extruder (Haake Reomix TW-lOO). The extruder speed was set at 50 rpm and the barrel temperature profile was set to produce a melt temperature of 260°C at the die. Samples were injection molded in a 31.8 MT Battenfeld press with a 59 cc shot size. Where noted, samples were compounded in a 60 cc Brabender internal mixer and compression molded. 

TABLE 5.3 Extrusion melt temperatures of whey proteins (Onwulata et ai, 2003a)... 

Melt spinning is not used for polyacrylics because they are sensitive to high temperatures. They actually begin to decompose before they reach melting temperature. Solution spinning is used instead. The dried polymer is dissolved in a polar solvent like acetone or dimethyl formamide (DMF). The spinning mechanics are otherwise the same, except the solvent is recovered as it vaporizes, immediately after the extrusion through the spinneret. Most acrylics are sold and used in the form of staple fiber. 

Experimental and simulation results presented below will demonstrate that barrel rotation, the physics used in most texts and the classical extrusion literature, is not equivalent to screw rotation, the physics involved in actual extruders and used as the basis for modeling and simulation in this book. By changing the physics of the problem the dissipation and thus adiabatic temperature increase can be 50% in error for Newtonian fluids. For example, the temperature increase for screw and barrel rotation experiments for a polypropylene glycol fluid is shown in Fig. 7.30. As shown in this figure, the barrel rotation experiments caused the temperature to increase to a higher level as compared to the screw rotation experiments. The analysis presented here focuses on screw rotation analysis, in contrast to the historical analysis using barrel rotation [15-17]. It was pointed out recently by Campbell et al. [59] that the theory for barrel and screw rotation predicts different adiabatic melt temperature increases. 

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