Lab-scale extrusion | machinery feature
Plastics extrusion is typically about large volumes – but the ability to control smaller throughputs is useful in specialist applications and product development
On the small scale: laboratory scale extrusion
Pipe extrusion is not always about squeezing out the largest amount of polymer into the biggest pipe. Sometimes – for specialist pipe, for instance, or during product development – producers need to scale down what they are doing. US-based Entek recently introduced its newest
co-rotating twin-screw extruder, the QC3, which is a 33mm co-rotating twin-screw extruder – a size not previously offered by the company. It is mainly designed for small-size lots of compounds, and includes all of the company’s latest QC features – Quick-Change, Quick- Clean, and Quality Control. The smallest model in the range has a 27mm screw. The company launched the new extruder following
customer demands for this specific size of machine. “Our 27mm twin-screw extruder is excellent for lab
environments, and our 43mm is designed for small to medium-sized lots,” said Kirk Hanawalt, president of Entek. “We were getting requests for something in-between – a machine designed for small lots, but with more output than the lab machine.” The company’s pilot plant in Lebanon, Oregon has seen some changes since new pilot plant manager Andy Hoffman joined the company in April. The lab allows customer to run samples, using a
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43mm version of the QC3. “Since I arrived, the pilot plant team has been busy running trials for both new and existing customers and completing improvements to the facility,” said Hoffman. “The trials have used a variety of downstream equip- ment on our 43mm QC3 twin screw extruder.” He said that as well as running both strand and
underwater pelletisation, the company has also done some profile extrusion.
Mini demonstration Conair collaborated with Davis-Standard and Zumbach Electronics at last year’s MD&M West show to produce precision small-diameter medical tubing as part of a live demonstration. The demonstration line extruded an adult PICC line in
polyurethane (PU). The tubing is a double-D design (two lumens with a septum between the two channels). It is tapered so outside diameter changes repeatedly as the tubing is extruded so that, when the tube is cut to length, one end will be larger in diameter than the other. The process began in a Conair MicroWheel desiccant
dryer, where the hygroscopic PU was dried prior being delivered to a Davis-Standard 0.75in (19mm) MEDD extruder with eVue controls.
March 2017 | PIPE & PROFILE EXTRUSION 33
Fraunhofer LBF’s kilo-
gramme scale lab allows the production of samples for
physical testing
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