2.

Extrusion

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 2. Extrusion Process
 Extrusion is a continuous process based on a screw/barrel system and used to
produce finished or semifinished products (films, plates, pipes, profiles, cable
insulation) by forcing the polymer melt through a die.
 Extrusion is by far the most important method for shaping polymers.
 Extrusion is also used for pelletizing, polymerization, or compounding. Compared
to other processes, extrusion is well ahead of injection molding, blow molding or
calendering. Moreover, in most of these other processes, the melting phase of pellets
and the generation of pressure are very often achieved using a screw/barrel system.
Principle:
• It comprises of forcing of a plastic material through a die by means of pressure.
• The chief concern with extrusion of polymers is the die swell and the orientation.
• In die swell, the extrudate swells to a size greater than the die from which it just
exited. Thus the design must compensate for the swell.
• Polymer molecules become highly oriented in one or two directions as a result of the
strongly oriented flow inherent in the extrusion process.
• Control of orientation can improve the property of the material.
 Extrusion
Applications
 For compounding plastics
 Production of tubes ,pipes ,sheets ,film , wire coating and other continuous profiles.
 It is generally used in case of thermoplastic polymers and some thermosets too.
 Commonly used polymers are PE, PP, PS, PVC, polyamide, polyester.

Extrusion is divided into several sections

 Advantages of Extrusion
Extrusion results in better
• Better grain structure
• Better accuracy and
• Surface finish of the components.
• Less wastage of material in extrusion.
• A cross section of the material part with different grain flow
pattern.

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 Cont…
• Extrusion can be hot or cold depending on the ductility of the
material specially for metal processing.
• Extrusion may be continuous (theoretically producing long
material) or semi-continuous (producing many pieces because
each piece is extruded individually)
• The products of extrusion are generally called "extrudates".
• Tool costs are generally low.

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 Extrusion
• Extruders are basically helical screw pumps that convert solid polymer
material into melt , which is then delivered to the die.
TYPES:
 Single screw extruder
 Twin screw extruder
 Single screw extruder
Raw materials in the form of thermoplastic pellets, granules, or powder, placed into a hopper
and fed into extruder barrel.
The barrel is equipped with a screw that blends the pellets and conveys them down the barrel
Heaters around the extruder’s barrels heats the pellets and liquefies them

Major components: Barrel, Screw

Die - not an extruder component (Special tool that must be fabricated for particular profile to
be produced )
 Single Screw Extruder
Parts & its functions

Screw Pump Combination of Screw & Barrel

Hopper Funnel like device, mounted on
Hopper throat. Holds a constant
reserve of material.
Barrel Cylindrical housing in which the
screw rotates.
Hopper Throat Circular opening at the feed end
through which the material enters
the screw pump.
Drive System AC/DC drives
Speed reduction gear box
Transmission system

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 Screw types
• The screw-barrel system is at the heart of the extrusion process and
determines its performance. The flow of the material results from the
action of the screw flights on the polymer in contact with the inner
wall of the barrel.
• If the polymer sticks to the screw, the extrusion does not proceed. On
the other hand, the flow improves if the polymer sticks to the barrel.
• The screw types currently available on the market are not very
diverse. To better meet the requirements of processing companies,
much progress remains to be made in the field of screw design.
Nowadays, the majority of screws used are conventional screws, with
the screw pitch being equal to the diameter.

Fig. Conventional screw

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 Screw modification to improve performance
A number of modifications, described below, have been incorporated into the
conventional screw to improve its performance since the 1960s, including
grooved barrels, barrier screws and mixing heads.
Table: Improvement in conventional screw-barrel system

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 Zones of Extruder & its Functions:
Feed zone
• In this 1st zone, the polymer pellets are conveyed to the subsequent
zone.
• Main function is to preheat the polymer.
• Here the screw depth is constant.
• Compacts, eliminates air gap
Compression zone
• Softens the material
• Transport the material from compression to metering zone.
• Here the screw depth increases.
• It repels the air gap between the granules.
• Heat transfer from the barrel wall is improved.
• Density change is accommodated.
Metering zone
• Melts, Mixes, the material pressurizes and pumps the melt.
• Here screw depth is constant.
• It homogenizes the melt and supply it to the die. 11
 Cont…
Die zone
• The final zone to shape the polymer melt.
• Comprises of the perforated steel plate called breaker plate and a
sieve pack.
• It sieves out the extraneous materials(foreign particles).
• It removes the turning memory from the polymer melt.
• It allows head pressure to develop by providing a resistance for
pumping action of metering zone.

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 Factors Influencing Extruder Output

Factor Direction of change Output

Screw speed Increase Increase

Channel depth Increase Increase

Increase(max. upto
Helix angle Increase
300)

Back Pressure Decrease Increase

Length of Metering
Increase Increase
section

Viscosity Increase Decrease

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 2.2 Plasticating Extruder
• The plasticating single screw extruder is the most common
equipment in the polymer industry. It can be part of an injection
molding unit and found in numerous other extrusion processes,
including blow molding, film blowing, and wire coating

Fig. Schematic of a plasticating single screw extruder.

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 Plasticating extruder
 The plasticating extruder can be divided into three main zones:

• The solids conveying zone

• The melting or transition zone
• The metering or pumping zone

 The tasks of a plasticating extruder are to:

• Transport the solid pellets or powder from the hopper to the screw
channel
• Compact the pellets and move them down the channel
• Melt the pellets
• Mix the polymer into a homogeneous melt
• Pump the melt through the die

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 Extrusion Dies
• The extrusion die shapes the polymer melt into its final profile. It is located at the
end of the extruder and used to extrude
 Flat films and sheets
 Pipes and tubular films for bags
 Filaments and strands
 Hollow profiles for window frames
 Open profiles
 Depending on the functional needs of the product, several rules of thumb can be
followed when designing an extruded plastic profile. These are:
 Avoid thick sections. Thick sections add to the material cost and increase sink
marks caused by shrinkage.
 Minimize the number of hollow sections. Hollow sections add to die cost and
make the die more difficult to clean.
 Generate profiles with constant wall thickness. Constant wall thickness in a
profile makes it easier to control the thickness of the final profile and results in
a more even crystallinity distribution in semi-crystalline profiles.

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 Cont…
• Design of extruded die

Fig. Extrusion profile design.

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 Sheeting dies
 Sheeting die: One of the most widely used extrusion dies is the coat-
hanger sheeting die. A sheeting die, such as the one depicted in Fig., is
formed by the following elements:
• Manifold: evenly distributes the melt to the approach or land region
• Approach or land: carries the melt from the manifold to the die lips
• Die lips: perform the final shaping of the melt
• Flex lips: for fine tuning when generating a uniform profile

Figure : Cross-section of a coat-hanger die.

18
 Twin-Screw Extrusion
• Twin-screw extrusion, mainly used for the preparation and processing
of complex polymeric materials, through compounding and reactive
extrusion.
• Two screws rotating inside a barrel.
• Intermeshing type are more popular.
• Different models/design available
• Both single and twin screw extruder consists of basic elements such
as screw, feeder, barrel, heaters, mortar and gear box.

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 Types of Twin-Screw Extrusion
Basic Types
1. Co-rotating
2. Counter-rotating
 Mainly used for preparation of master batches/colour concentrates
 Co-rotating Twin screw - used for compounding all thermoplastics
except PVC.
 Counter rotating - preferred for PVC.

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 Comparison between Co-rotating and Counter rotating
Co-rotating Counter rotating
Both screws either turn clock-wise or One screw turns clockwise and other
counter clock-wise. counter clockwise
More complete self wiping Less self wiping

Less likelihood of material stagnation More likelihood of material stagnation

Better mixing Less than co-rating

Total shear is more Less shear compared to co-rotating and

single screw extruder

Mostly for compounding of TP Mainly for PVC compounding

Positive pumping Positive pumping

Less power consumption than single Less power consumption than single
screw screw.

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 Applications of extrusion
1. Film: Blown film, Cast film, Co-extruded films.
Material Used: PP,PVC, LDPE, HDPE, PET, Nylon etc.
2. Pipe/tube
Material: HDPE, LDPE, LLDPE, PVC etc.
3. Sheet
Material: HDPE, ABS, HIPS, PC etc.
4. Monofilament
Material: PP, Nylon etc.
5. Extrusion Coating/Lamination
Coated Playing Cards, Wrapping and LDPE laminated Woven sacks
Material: LD,PP,HDPE
6. Box Strapping
Material: PP, HDPE etc.
7. Tape/Woven Sack
Material: PP, HDPE
8. Wire Coating/Covering
Primary/Secondary insulation
Material: LDPE, PVC (Primary insulation) Nylon (secondary insulation)
9. Profiles ( Door and window )
Material: PVC
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 3. Mixing Process
• Mixing refers to operations that have a tendency to reduce
nonuniformities or gradients in concentration, temperature, size of a
dispersed phase, or other properties of materials.
• Mixing operation increases the configurational entropy of the system,
which becomes a maximum as the configuration becomes random.
• Mixing is considered to be one of the most widespread industrial unit
operations, and it is found in the core of many areas in the general
industry.

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 Distributive Mixing
• Distributive mixing, or laminar mixing, of compatible liquids is usually
characterized by the distribution of the droplet or secondary phase within
the matrix. This distribution is achieved by imposing large strains on the
system such that the interfacial area between the two or more phases
increases and the local dimensions, or striation thicknesses, of the
secondary phases decrease.

• As the inner cylinder rotates, the secondary

component is distributed through the systems with
constantly decreasing striation thickness; striation
thickness depends on the strain rate of
deformation which makes it a function of position.
• Imposing large strains on the system is not always
sufficient to achieve a homogeneous mixture. The
type of mixing device, initial orientation and
position of the two or more fluid components play
a significant role in the quality of the mixture .

Fig. Experimental result of distributive mixing 24

 Cont…
• Figure below shows another variation of initial orientation and
arrangement of the secondary component. Here, the secondary phase
cuts across all streamlines, which leads to a homogeneous mixture
throughout the Couette device, under appropriate conditions.

Figure: Schematic of distributive mixing in Couette flow

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 Dispersive Mixing
• Dispersive mixing is the term used to describe mixing associated with some
fundamental change of the physical characteristics of one or more of the
components of the mixture.
• Dispersive mixing in polymer processing involves breaking a secondary immiscible
fluid or an agglomerate of solid particles and dispersing them throughout the matrix.
Here, the imposed strain is not as important as the imposed stress which causes the
system to break up. Hence, the type of flow inside a mixer plays a significant role
on the break up of solid particle clumps or fluid droplets when dispersing them
throughout the matrix.
• The most common example of dispersive mixing of particulate solid agglomerates is
the dispersion and mixing of carbon black into a rubber compound as shown in
figure below. However, the break up of particulate agglomerates is best explained
using an ideal system of two small spherical particles that need to be separated
and dispersed during a mixing process.

Fig. Break up of particulate agglomerates during flow 26

 Dispersive Mixing
• Generally, dispersive mixing is divided into two parts: the
incorporation of the additives in terms of agglomerated particles or the
second polymer component into the polymer matrix, and the
dispersion (or deagglomeration) of the second phase to yield the final
product.
• The microstructures of the blends are determined by rheological,
hydrodynamic, and thermodynamic parameters.
• The rheological parameters are viscosity, elasticity, and yield stress of
all components.
• The hydrodynamic parameters determine the flow fields. The
thermodynamic parameters are related to solubility, adhesion, and
diffusion of all components. In this section we address the dispersion
of agglomerates (additives) and other polymers (liquid–liquid
dispersion) into a polymer matrix.

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 Dispersion vs. Distribution mixing

• Comparison of distribution and dispersion mixing

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 Forces in Mixing
• How the force transmitted, to break down agglomerates of additive
particles?
– By fluid mechanical stress in the mixer

Less energy is needed

Under high viscosity conditions
To achieve good dispersion 29
 Routes for Mixing
• Route 1: with well distributed but poorly dispersed additive, will
entail lower viscosity than route 2.
• Previous equation suggest that Route 1 will require more energy than
Route 2

30
 Cont…
• Why distributive mixing is difficult to achieve in melts?
For example low viscosity system exhibits turbulent mixing
• The boundry between laminar flow and turbulent flow is described by Reynold’s
equation

• V = velocity of the fluid, ρ= density, η = viscosity, D = diameter of circular

channel
• Renolds Number must exceed 2000 for turbulence flow
• Consider a channel where,
D = 0.5 cm = 0.005 m
η= 150 Pas
ρ= 1000 kg m-3
Q = 250 cm3 s-1 (Q is the amount of materials put through a process/volume throughput)
Find velocity from the volume throughput

Low value of Re indicates that turbulent flow

Cannot occur in polymer melts.
31
 Cont…
• Based on Reynold’s equation, three viscosity regimes are seen to be;
– At low viscosity, turbulence results in efficient distribution
– At high viscosity (as found in polymer melts), turbulence cannot
occur & dispersion is poor
– At very high viscosity (as in rubber), there is sufficient shear to
break down agglomerates & efficient distribution and dispersion
can occur.

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 Mixing Devices
• The final properties of a polymer component are heavily influenced
by the blending or mixing process that takes place during processing
or as a separate step in the manufacturing process. Hence, when
measuring the quality of mixing it is also necessary to evaluate the
efficiency of mixing.
• Generally, mixers can be classified in two categories: internal batch
mixers and continuous mixers.
• Internal batch mixers, such as the Banbury type mixer, are the oldest
type of mixing devices in polymer processing and are still widely used
in the rubber compounding industry.
• Industry often also uses continuous mixers because they combine
mixing in addition to their normal processing tasks. Typical examples
are single and twin screw extruders that often have mixing heads or
kneading blocks incorporated into their system.
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 Mixing Devices
• Static mixers. Static mixers or motionless mixers are pressure-driven continuous
mixing devices through which the melt is pumped, rotated, and divided, leading to
effective mixing without the need for movable parts and mixing heads. One of the
most commonly used static mixers is the twisted tape static mixer
• The polymer is sheared and then rotated by 90o by the dividing wall, the interfaces
between the fluids increase. The interfaces are then re-oriented by 90o once the
material enters a new section. The stretching-re-orientation sequence is repeated
until the number of striations is so high that a seemingly homogeneous mixture is
achieved.
• It can be seen that the number of striations increases from section to section by 2, 4,
8, 16, 32, etc., which can be computed using
Where N is the number of striations and n is the number of sections in the mixer

Figure : Schematic diagram of

a Kenics static mixer. Figure: Experimental progression of the layering of
colored resins in a Kenics static mixer. 34
 Mixing Devices
• Internal batch mixer: internal batch or Banbury type mixer is perhaps the
most commonly used internal batch mixer.
• Internal batch mixers are high-intensity mixers that generate complex
shearing and elongational flows, which work especially well in the
dispersion of solid particle agglomerates within polymer matrices. One of
the most common applications for high-intensity internal batch mixing is
the break up of carbon black agglomerates into rubber compounds.
• The dispersion of agglomerates is strongly dependent on mixing time, rotor
speed, temperature, and rotor blade geometry.
• Fraction of undispersed carbon black as a
function of time in a Banbury mixer at 77
rpm and 100 oC. The broken line in the
figure represents the fraction of particles
smaller than 500 nm.
• The open circles denote experimental
results and the solid line a theoretical
prediction. The broken line denotes the
Figure: Fraction of undispersed carbon black, fraction of aggregates of size below 500
larger than 9 µm, as a function of mixing time nm.
35
inside a Banbury mixer
 Mixing Process functions
• Mixing process based on two basic mixing functions: blending and
compounding.
1. Blending mixing is used when the fabrication process will be followed by
compounding process (pigments must be mix into granules/powder
followed by injection molding process), thermosetting powders and fillers
are often blends which disperse upon fusion of the resin during molding.
– blending involves stirring together/blending of a number of solids,
e.g. polypropylene powder, pigment, antioxidant, etc.
– The results is a mixture of powders; the individual powder remain and
can be separated (in principle)
2. Compounding mixing is used when accurate distribution & dispersion of
ingredients is required (e.g. in rubber compounding, 4-5 additives have to
act together for efficient cross-linking of the rubber)
– Involves more intimate dispersion of the additives into the polymeric
matrix
– It requires;
• A physical change in the component
• High shear force to bring about the change 36
• The polymer to be in the molted or rubbery state during mixing
 Some Processes and Machine (Blending)
Vary from the simplest to sophisticated high speed machine
• The simplest- is to tumble together dry ingredients, e.g. using a
twin-drum tumbler.
• Ribbon-blender
– A tumbling action takes place
– The chamber is stationary and the ribbons rotate constantly
scooping the material from the outside to the center.

Twin-drum tumbler Ribbon blender

37
 Blending Processes and Machine

• High speed mixer

– More sophisticated & rapid machine for blending
– Widely used for PVC dry blends, drying, incorporated pigments, antioxidant,
etc.
– Run at several thousand rpm, and form a circulating powders which becomes
heated by friction (150-200ºC)
– Mixing tank can be single wall or jacketted for temp. control

38
 Blending Processes and Machine

• Ball Mill
– Comprises of cylindrical vessel containing large number of steel
or ceramic balls
– It rotates, the balls tumble inside together with the powder
– Agglomerates of powder are broken down by the grinding action
of the tumbling balls

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 Compounding Processes and Machine
• Involve high shear process & much more powerful
machinery
• The simplest technique is two-roll mill
• Two-roll mill:
– Pair of rollers with a vertical ‘nips’ between them
– The polymer and additives are subjected to high shear in the nip
as the rolls rotate in opposite directions
– Two-roll mill mixing started with rubber processing, now exist
for various function
– Mixing on two-roll mill is time consuming, 2 h for a 200 kg mix
on a 84” wide mill, and depends on the skill of mill operator

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 Banbury Mixer
• 2 rotors-counter-rotating within a chamber
• Each has two or four ‘blades’ which mix by smearing the
materials against the chamber wall
• A weighted ram keeps the mix in place inside the chamber

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 Banbury Mixer vs. Two-roll Mill
• The rate of output (200 kg batch of rubber
compound would take 2 h- two-roll mill. A number
11 Banbury mixer produce 350 kg in 15 min or less)

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 Mixing components
• Mixing occurs with polymer pellets and Additives.
• Polymers are mixed with added ingredients (serve a variety of
purposes)
• Two types of additives can be mixed with polymers
Modifying additives
Protective additives
• Modifying Additives: alter the properties of the polymer
• Types of additive
– Reinforcing fillers- to toughen polymers. e.g. carbon black added
to rubber; improvement in abrasion resistance
– Non-reinforcing fillers- are in powder, added to cheapen the mix
(usually these additives do not enhance the properties).
e.g. calcium carbonate.

43
 Modifying additive
– Plasticizer- usually non-volatile liquids, desired to increase the
flexibility. e.g. flexible plasticized PVC
– Liquid extender- often used in rubber, they are hydrocarbon oils,
cheapen the mix (without enhancing properties)
– Chemical additives- changes in properties (widely used for cross-
linking). e.g. the ‘vulcanization’ of rubber- rubber chains are cross-
linked chemically by sulphur.
– Chemical Blowing Agent – to produced foam product. e.g. in
sponge or ‘Sorbo’ rubber, sodium bicarbonate is used as blowing
agent
– Pigments/dyes- used to colour the product

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 Protective Additives
• Protective additives: Very large number of additives in this classification
 Antioxidant- used to protect polymer against atmospheric oxidation & protect
the polymer structure during the service life of the product.
 Heat stabilizer- prevent degradation at high processing temperatures.
 Antiozonants- a type of specialized antioxidant used especially in rubbers. e.g.
unsaturated double bonds in rubber molecules are very susceptible to attack by
ozone.
 UV stabilizer- often work in conjunction with antioxidant. Starting an oxidation
reaction- attack at the reactive site on the polymer by UV radiation, in sunlight.
 Antistatic agents- prevent the build-up of undesirable static charges- create a
potential dangerous spark in some cases.
 Processing Lubricant- widely used to assist the passage of the material through
the processing machinery.
 Internal lubricant- lubricate the polymer granules, and those of other additives
during processing. These materials are often at least partially miscible with the
polymer melt.
 External lubricants- essentially immiscible, lubricate the mix against the
processing machinery-allow the correct degree of friction

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