PROCESSING OF POLYMER

MANU 4347
Problems

Extrusion
1. The diameter of an extruder barrel is 65 mm and its length = 1.75 m. The screw rotates at 55 rev/min.
The screw channel depth = 5.0 mm, and the flight angle = 18°. The head pressure at the die end of the
barrel is 5.0 x 106 Pa. The viscosity of the polymer melt is given as 100 Pas. Find the volume flow rate of
the plastic in the barrel.

2. An extruder has a diameter of 5.0 in and a length to diameter ratio of 26. The barrel heats the
polypropylene melt to 450°F, which provides a melt viscosity of 0.0025 lb-s/in2. The pitch of the screw is
4.2 in and the channel depth is 0.15 in. In operation the screw rotates at 50 rev/min and a head pressure of
450 lb/in2 is generated. What is the volume flow rate of polypropylene from the die at the end of the
barrel?
3. An extruder barrel has a diameter of 110 mm and a length of 3.0 m. The screw channel depth = 7.0
mm, and its pitch = 95 mm. The viscosity of the polymer melt is 105 Pas, and the head pressure in the
barrel is 4.0 MPa. What rotational speed of the screw is required to achieve a volumetric flow rate of 90
cm3/s?

4. An extruder has a barrel diameter of 2.5 in and a length of 6.0 ft. The screw has a channel depth of 0.25
in, a flight angle of 20°, and rotates at 55 rev/min. The material being extruded is polypropylene. At the
present settings, the volumetric flow rate of the polymer melt is 1.50 in 3/sec and the head pressure is 500
lb/in2. Under these operating characteristics, what is the viscosity of the polypropylene?

5. An extruder has diameter = 80 mm and length = 2.0 m. Its screw has a channel depth = 5 mm, flight
angle = 18 degrees, and it rotates at 1 rev/sec. The plastic melt has a shear viscosity = 150 Pas. Determine
the extruder characteristic by computing Qmax and pmax and then finding the equation of the straight line
between them.
6. Determine the helix angle A such that the screw pitch p is equal to the screw diameter D. This is called
the "square" angle in plastics extrusion - the angle that provides a flight advance equal to one diameter for
each rotation of the screw.
7. An extrusion operation produces continuous tubing with outside diameter = 2.0 in and inside diameter
= 1.7 in. The extruder barrel has a diameter = 4.0 in and length = 10 ft. The screw rotates at 50 rev/min; it
has a channel depth = 0.25 in and flight angle = 16°. The head pressure has a value of 350 lb/in2 and the
viscosity of the polymer melt is 80 x 10-4 lb-sec/in2. Under these conditions, what is the production rate in
length of tube/min, assuming the extrudate is pulled at a rate that eliminates the effect of die swell (i.e.,
the tubing has the same OD and ID as the die profile).
8. An extruder has barrel diameter and length of 100 mm and 2.8 m, respectively. The screw rotational
speed = 50 rev/min, channel depth = 7.5 mm, and flight angle = 17°. The plastic melt has a shear viscosity
= 175 Pas. Determine: (a) the extruder characteristic, (b) the shape factor Ks for a circular die opening
with diameter = 3.0 mm and length = 12.0 mm, and (c) the operating point (Q and p).
Injection Molding

Table 1: Typical shrinkage values

Plastic Shrinkage, μm/mm

ABS 6

Polycarbonate 7

Nylon-6,6 20

Polyethylene 25

Polystyrene 4

PVC 5

9. Compute the percentage volumetric contraction of a polyethylene molded part, based on the value of
shrinkage given in Table 1.
Note that we are not using the parameter S from Table 1 in the way it was intended to be used. Its
intended use is to compute the oversized dimension of a mold cavity in injection molding. Instead, we are
using the shrinkage term to calculate the amount of (volumetric) reduction in size of the part after the
polymer is injected into the cavity. In fact, a slightly different shrinkage parameter value may apply in
this case.

10. The specified dimension = 225.00 mm for a certain injection molded part made of ABS. Compute the
corresponding dimension to which the mold cavity should be machined, using the value of shrinkage
given in Table 1.

Other Molding Operations and Thermoforming

11. The extrusion die for a polyethylene parison used in blow molding has a mean diameter of 18.0 mm.
The size of the ring opening in the die is 2.0 mm. The mean diameter of the parison is observed to swell
to a size of 21.5 mm after exiting the die orifice. If the diameter of the blow molded container is to be 150
mm, determine (a) the corresponding wall thickness of the container and (b) the wall thickness of the
parison.
12. A blow molding operation produces a 6.25 in diameter bottle from a parison that is extruded in a die
whose outside diameter = 1.25 in and inside diameter = 1.00 in. The observed diameter swell ratio = 1.24.
What is the maximum air pressure that can be used if the maximum allowable tensile stress for the
polymer is 1000 lb/in2.