posted September 19, 2004 02:35 AM               

What sort of info are you looking for, operation, designs for specific materials, genral background info.

posted September 19, 2004 08:37 PM               

You may be interested in the Extrusion Seminar to be given by Compuplast in Las Vegas in November. I have posted some details under the "Seminars and Training" forum.

Also you could go to this site;
http://www.compuplast.ca/2004Seminar.htm

As I am a representative for Compuplast please tell them you heard about the seminar from me.

Thanks,

posted September 21, 2004 08:35 AM               

It is not clear whether you have had prior expereince in extrusion. Please allow me to share some of my experiences. Having help positions in extrusion such as Plant Manager, Technical Director, President and Consultant over the past 25 years I feel that I have a good handle on the econmomics of extrusion, and am still learning about the process.

Screw and barrels themselves cost companies tens of thousands if not hundereds of thousands of dollars per year. But that is a minor cost compared to the value of extrusion time. The condition of the screw and barrel is one of the most influential items on the productivity of extruders. On average an extruder can generate $1,000,000 per year of cash flow for a company. Plus or minus 10% of productivity on that single extruder can cover the whole plant's screw and barrel budget for a year.

As you can see extruder time is extremely valuable. However many companies I know treat extruder time and productivity lightly. I have been involved in cases where extrusion companies have transformed their profitability by employing advanced screw designs and put their barrels into good condition.

So to me it seems funny that your company would charge you with maintenance of their screws and barrels, and seemingly some process development, and not want to fund your education in extrusion.

We here at the forum are available to help you, but generally the questions need to be very specific in order to get a worthwile response.

Tom C

posted September 21, 2004 04:24 PM               

I can't add too much to Tom's post, except that processing parameters greatly influence output as well as wear. You can't always replace some thing when you want to, but you can always "tweak" to get maximun output at best quality.

I'd suggest joining SPE (the Society of Plastics Engineers) www.4spe.org
Join the extrusion division, once you join, you can access all the papers presented at SPE's ANTEC's (lots of extrusion info). Their bookstore is worth browsing, the Extrusion Trouibleshooting Manual will be useful to you. Dynisco have a useful little book "The Extrusion Processors Handbook". have a good browse through the threads here, and you'll find lots of other book recommendations.

Go to material suppliers sites, and look for their processing guides, these will give you an idea of what they think is needed to extrude their material.

How big are the sections you want to granulate (grind)?

posted September 21, 2004 09:29 PM               

BSIE, Lehigh University, 1979

For those dedicated enough extrusion takes years to learn. There are many products and tools that can help speed up the leaning process;

Training seminars (as mentioned)
Training products (such as Paulson's)
Books (Klein and Rauendaal)
SPE Antec (Society of Plastics Engineers Annual Techncial conference, highly recommended)
SPE Website (as mentioned)
Extrusion Simulation Software (my big push)
Die flow software (the latest semi-auto designs the die internals, cool stuff)

and

Lots of hands on experience combined with good data and good measurment tools.

Have fun!

Tom C
Extrusion Technical Services

posted September 23, 2004 05:09 AM               

quote:

---

good data and good measurment tools.

---

Hi Vick

You can't have too much good inhouse info on each line under your charge. Accurate production records can soon pin point screw wear, while providing a basis to check quality and assist trouble shooting (if it worked last time with these settings, why isn't it this time, what's changed)

Tappi is another (somewhat obscure) source of extrusion info, their polymers and laminates division has produced some very good extrusion info, while it's directed at film and extrusion coating, there is still some very good background info www.tappi.org

Allan Griff is a man well worth going to hear, if he's presenting his extrusion seminars anywhere near you. Allan approaches things from a practical, pragmatic, handson direction.

Do some "googling" for "extrusion screw design" etc, you'll be suprised what you'll turn up.

Skip Thacker is the PVC guru and moderates the PVC forum here, he's produced a handbook on managing PVC extrusion plants that might be useful to you.

posted September 24, 2004 03:04 PM               

Meanwhile avoid high places, avoid proximity to any type of personally lethal
weapon.