LAB 6

Determination of the Residence Time of the Melt Polymer in the Extruder

Extruder

Applications

Plastic Plastic Plastic Plastic

film sheet tube rod

Biscuits Pasta Breakfast cereal Snack Confectionery Pet food

Blown Film Extrusion Line

Extruder Blown film tower Winder

Extruder

Feed system Screw & Barrel Die Air ring

Screw and Barrel

Feed system Die

Feed

Compression

Metering

Blown Film Tower

Bubble guide Collapsing frame Top nip Idler rollers

Winder

Lay flat tube Slit both sides Slit one side

Residence time & its distribution

Quantitative analysis of the flow in the extrusion process Residence time is the time resins are in exposed to heat in the extruder Residence time is an average value

Concept
Introduction of a marker into the extruder along with the resin. The concentration of the marker in the plastics is monitored as a function of time

Choice of Markers

Similar flow properties as the resin Easily detected Safe to use Economical

Example of marker

TiO2 Carbon black Radioactive traces Glass microsphere Fillers Dyes Functionalized tracers

Methods

Step Input
Continuous feed of the marker when the process is at steady state conditions

Marker concentration

Time
Marker concentration

Pulse Input
Introduce small amount of the marker into the extruder system

Time
Chi-square distribution

Application

Understanding the effect of the processing equipments Characterize purging and mixing Determine expected exposure time

Procedure: Extruder

Warm up (1 hour)

main power switch: on Open the cooling water

Operating the extruder

Plug in the three power cords Open the air supply valve (from the ceiling above the machine) Press run on the GDP 333 blowing motor Turn the take up roll on (Red-yellow knob) Turn the winder on by pulling start and run switch up)

Procedure: Extruder

Check that the screw speed is 0 (if not adjust to zero) Press start and cold start Slowly increase the speed of the screw by the gradual speed knob Feed LDPE resin through the hopper

It takes about 5 minute for the extrudate to come out from the die

Procedure: Extruder

Drag the extrudate up to the top nip Pass it through idle rolls to the winder

Procedure: Extruder

Adjust the blow up ratio by introducing the air by slowly turning the air valve. After the desired size is obtained, close the valve

Procedure: RT & RTD

0.02 0.03 g Carbon black

Procedure: RT & RTD

When the mark reaches the winder, start the timer Mark the film every one minute until the color disappear
(Now, its time to turn on the UV spec.)

Procedure: Shut down

Purge with LDPE resin to clean Follow the Shut down procedure in the lab manual except #3. It should be changed to
3. Turn off the screw speed by turning the gradual speed knob to 0 rpm. Then, push stop button

Procedure: C-black concentration

C-black concentration is determined using the light absorption of the film

High concentration high light absorption Low concentration low light absorption

Cut sample from the mark area 1.5 1 Measure light absorption at 500 nm

Results
Time 1 2 Absorption . .
Absorption

. . 10

. . .

Time

Residence time distribution

Calculation

Residence time average

Tavg

A t A
i i i
i i

Standard deviation

A t

Tavg
i

Tmax = Tavg + 3

Report includes

Twag, , and Tmax Residence time distribution with the mark shows Twag and Tmax Factors affecting residence time and residence time distribution

Lab 5: Final Report

Introduction, discussion, and conclusion Tabulated summary of the result Identification of unknown sample

Justification of your identification from each results Which result did not agree with identification? What is the reason you discard that result?