Single Screw Extruders Applications

In this section we will cover some of the products made by extrusion. While there are hundreds of different products, most fall into one of six general areas, categorized by die 

Pipes and tubes find application in household plumbing, medical devices, and irriga- 

Once the polymer exits the die, it is generally solidified rather quickly by pulling it through a chilled-water trough (called free extrusion) or through a closed water 

FIGURE 14-24 The calibrator used in the extrusion of plastic pipes. 

Dd = Die exit diameter Dt = Tip diameter D0 = Product outside diameter D = Product inside diameter 

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Simulation of the extrusion process in the laboratory is one of the most important applications of the torque rheometer in conjunction with single-screw extruders. Figure 13 illustrates simulations of widely used extrusion processes in the industries. 

Wire and Cable. PVC has been used in wire and cable applications since Wodd War II, when the U.S. Navy demanded lower combustibility materials in construction. These products are manufactured by cross-head extrusion, usually from pellet compounds on single-screw extruders. Some line speeds are 1524 m (5000 ft) per minute (60 mph). The compounds are optimized for the requirements, including low temperature flexibility, high use temperature, especially low combustibility, weatherability, and high resistance to cutthrough. 

Although there are very few twin-screw (TS) extruders in comparison to the many more single-screw extruders, they are used also to produce products such as window and custom profile systems. Their major use is in compounding applications. The popular common twin-screw extruders (in the family of multi-screw extruders) include tapered screws or parallel cylindrical screws with at least one feed port through a hopper, a discharge port to which a die is attached, and process controls such as temperature, pressure, screw rotation (rpm), melt output rate, etc.143... 

This interaction depends on stock temperature and in turn on the performance of PVC melts. Flexible PVC is normally calendered at temperatures of 10 to 20C (50 to 68F) lower than rigid PVC. In flexible PVC production, a short single screw extruder acting as a strainer filters out contaminants from stock before reaching the calender. This important method is not applicable to rigid PVC because it drastically increases the head pressure and the consequent overheating would cause the stock to decompose. 

Fig. 3 Process schematic for thermoplastic extrusion of ceramic bodies at EMPA. Depending on the process requirements in other applications of thermoplastic extrusion, the high shear mixer and single-screw extruder shown here can be replaced with pieces of equipment which have other operating principles, but perform the same function.

Multilayer co-extrusion is another technique used in the preparation of starch/ synthetic sheets or films [164, 263-266], in which TPS is laminated with appropriate biodegradable polymers to improve the mechanical, water-resistance and gas-barrier properties of final products. These products have shown potential for applications such as food packaging and disposable product manufacture. Three-layer co-extrusion is most often practiced, in which a co-extrusion line consists of two single-screw extruders (one for the inner starch layer and the other for the outer polymer layers) a feedblock a coat-hanger-type sheet die and a three-roll calendering system [164]. Biodegradable polyesters such as PCL [164, 264], PLA [164, 263], and polyesteramide, PBSA and poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-valerate) [164] are often used for the outer layers. These new blends and composites are extending the utilization of starch-based materials into new value-added products. 

The components are blended in the desired ratio and fed through an extruder, such as a single-screw extruder, to produce the films. Depending on the process conditions, the film produced is white/opaque or clear/transparent, which is preferred for most packaging applications. 

The reciprocating single-screw extruder and its applicability to compounding. 

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