Polymer Extrusion Process

What is the Extrusion?

• Extrusion is a process of manufacturing long products of constant cross-section (rods,

sheets, pipes, films, wire insulation coating) forcing soften polymer through a die with an
opening.
• In the Extrusion pressure is applied from the rear of the work piece and the final product is
taken out from the die after the cooling.
• With the help of Extrusion we can obtain very complex shapes which are usually hard to
achieve by handcrafting.
How the Plastic Extrusion Works?
 Step by step Process.

• First the plastic material is fed into the hopper

• Then those plastic go through the barrel , pushed by the rotating screw.
• This screw has three major parts.
Feed zone
melting zone
melt pumping section
• Heating elements, placed over the barrel, soften and melt the polymer. The temperature of the material is controlled by
thermocouples.
• This screw supply plastic continuously to the die.
• Then the melted plastic go through the die and take the intended shape.
• After that the product is cool down and drawn out.
 What Happens in an Extruder?

• The screw in the extruder rotates and develops sufficient pressure to force
material to go through a die and produce products with desired geometry.
 Components of an Extruder

• Screw-
which rotates and make the plastic go forward.
• extruder drive
• Barrel-
melting.
• feed hopper
• Die
• Cooling unit
 Sections of the Screw rotator

• Feed section: Conveys the material from the hopper into the central region
of the barrel.
• Melt section: Where the heat generated by the viscous shearing of the
plastic pellets and by the external heaters causes melting to begin.
• Metering or pumping section: Where additional shearing (at a high rate) and
melting occur, with pressure building up at the die.
How does the extrusion vary from the injection
moulding process?
• Injection Molding is a process in which molten polymer is forced under high pressure into a mold
cavity through an opening (sprue).
• In the injection moulding the screw can move forward and backward in order to pressurize the
melted plastic.
• It apply extra pressure to the liquid plastic by moving the screw forward and push liquid plastic
into the mould.
• But in the extrusion process the screw is stationary rotating element.
• It does not apply pressure by moving forward but just rotating
• In the extrusion process screw is suppose to supply plastic continuously whereas injection
moulding doesn’t.
 Extrusion Lines
In addition to an extruder, an extrusion process requires upstream and
downstream equipment.
• resin handling
• drying system
• Extruder
• post-shaping or calibrating device
• cooling device
• take-up device
• cutter or saw
 Polymer Extrusion on what materials?

• Extrusion is used mainly for Thermoplastics, but Elastomers and Thermosets

are also may be extruded. In this case cross-linking forms during heating
and melting of the material in the extruder. The thermoplastic extruded
products may be further formed by the Thermoforming method.
 Plastics that can be used in Extrusion process.

• High impact styrene (HIPS)

• Rigid vinyl (R/PVC)
• Flexible vinyl (F/PVC)
• Polyethylene (PE)
• Polypropylene (PP)
• Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)
 Shrinkage and Swelling after Extrusion.

• As a result of go through a small die the out coming product is tends to swell due to
residual stresses.
• To face this effect we make a bit large tube to convey the product out
• After that we have to face the shrinking of the product.in other words it is reduced
dimension.
• Avoiding this is a very hard thing.so what we do is try to get the product as good as
possible.
• But making it very accurate makes it vary costly and very expencive.
 Cooling of the product

• After the plastic product is extruded, it has to be cooled down.

• Flow of air or Flow of water is usually used for the cooling purpose.
• But we have to be very careful because the product is still soft and
pressurize flow might damage the product.
 Advantages

• Continuous
• High production volumes
• Low cost per pound
• Efficient melting
• Many types of raw materials
• Good mixing
 Disadvantages

• Limited complexity of parts

• Uniform cross sectional shape only
• High initial cost
• Large space and long halls are needed for machines
 Applications of Extruded plastics.

• Compounded plastics
• Pipe/tubing
• Fence, deck railing
• Window frames
• Adhesive tapes
• Wire insulation
Thank you!!!!