The Tubular Film Blowing

Process

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How Does It Work?

Polymer granulates fed into an extruder (single
screw extruder) where they are melted,
homogenized and metered to a annular die
The melted plastic forms a thin-walled continuous
tube which is drawn from the die
The tube is inflated (air is supplied through inner
mandrel of the die) and simultaneously cooled by
rapidly moving air so that the plastic solidifies
quickly
The tube is then laid between rollers and wound
onto a reel.

Hardware for Blown Film

Upstream Components
Grooved Feed Throat
Screws for Blown Film Extrusion
Blown Film Dies

Upstream Components
The Crammer Feeder
When film is prepared for
feeding into an extruder, the
resulting feed is a very low
bulk density product known as
fluf.
Because the feed is in the
form of fluff, this form of
polymer does not feed readily
into an extruder hopper
simply by gravity. Therefore,
a Crammer Feeder is
needed
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Grooved Feed Throat

In many extrusion operations, the internal
surface of the feed throat is smooth; however,
for blown film, it is quite common to employ a
grooved feed throat

The purpose of the grooved feed throat

is to increase throughput

The grooves act to increase the friction

between the fluf and the barrel,
allowing the screw flight to force more
fluf forward with each revolution of the
screw.

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Screws for Blown Film

Extrusion

Because blown film extruders often utilize a grooved feed

throat, the conveyance rate of fluff is generally very high.
As a result, blown film extruder screws are typically designed for
high viscosity melts.
Deep flighted screws of conventional design (simple conveying
screws) are susceptible to unmelt, a condition where particles
that are not completely melted reach the end of the screw.
Barrier-type Screws are used in Blown Film Extrusion to eliminate
unmelt

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Blown Film Dies

The purpose of the blown
film die is to receive
polymer melt from the
extruder and deliver it to
the die exit as a thin
annular (tubular) film

Spiral Mandrel Die

The most common type

of die for blown film is
the spiral mandrel die
Their laminar flow behavior
mainly keeps the polymers
in separate layers through
the final product.

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The Bubble
The specific shape
of the bubble
depends on the
combined influence
of several process
parameters
nip speed, melt
speed, die diameter,
and compressed air
inflation rate
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Parameters Used to Describe

the Geometry of the Bubble

Die diameter
die diameter represents the initial bubble diameter as it
leaves the die

Die gap
the die gap determines the initial bubble wall thickness

Frost-line height
distance from the die face to where this solidification takes
place is called the frost-line height (film is optically frosting
as it becomes cloudy due to polymer crystallization)

Stalk
bubble region below the frost line

Bubble diameter (BD) and Film thickness

Above the frost line, where geometry is effectively frozenin, the terms bubble diameter and film thickness are simply
used for those characteristics