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Extended version of a paper presented at the VDI conference on "The Single Screw Extruder Basics and
System Optimization", published by VDI-Verlag Dsseldorf, 1997 Kunststofftechnik
extruders
particular to applications in
which fluctuating proportions of
In
the
USA,
extruder
development was - and still is -
largely
characterized
by
machines with smooth barrels.
Further development has tended
to concentrate more on the
screws than anything else, with
so-called 'barrier screws'
screws in which the solid
material is kept separate from
the
normal
characteristics of
The
development
of
single-screw plastificating
conveying
the solid
material.
In
such
cases,
extrusion is likely to be more
stable with a smooth-bore
extruder.
In Europe, the development of
extruders with heat-separated
grooved bushes in the feed
section began at the end of the
fifties and beginning of the
sixties. Grooves in the barrels to
increase barrel friction and
assist conveying of the solid
material had been tried out long
before
then.
They
were,
however, not enough to process
the newer high-molecular weight
HDPEs in powder and grit form.
This
specifically
European
phenomenon
on the raw
materials side has come from
the systematic analysis and
a=
b=
c=
d=
e=
f=
g=
h=
i=
k=
l=
m=
and
screw
(dynamic
mixing
sections), but also static mixing
elements.
The various constructions of
homogenizing elements will be
dealt with in more detail later.
While a wide variety of screw
concepts are still in use, current
developments are concentrating
very much on barrier screws.
For this reason, this report will
concentrate on such models
while taking a wider look at the
topic of single-screw extrusion.
Fig. 2 shows schematically the
basic concept of barrier screws
for different lengths of extruders,
with and without barrel venting.
The concept is the same for new
extruders as it is for the
retrofitting of existing machines.
The evaluation of a barrier
plastificating section is generally
carried out by looking at the
differences in the pitch and flight
depths and the design of the
feed section and outlet area of
the barrier flights. Both North
American and European barrier
screw
developments
have
plastification is nevertheless
ensured by the end of the
in [4].
concepts,
including
their
characteristic features, is given
homogeneity problems.
or crosslinking
High level of versatility: ability
output screws
plastificating
Gentle
but
plastification
complete
Low
performance-related
investment and operating
costs
In recent years, so-called
grooved barrel extruders with
barrier screws have proved to
be the most suitable systems
among single-screw machines.
With many grooved barrel
extruders, the pressure build-up
at the end of the feed section is
too high, encouraging wear and
tear and impairing the stability of
the process. This can be
countered by enlarging the pitch
or making the screw channel
deeper, although this involves
500
PE - HD Hostalen GM 7746
Extruder 50 mm, 28:1 L/D
450
400
pressure [bar]
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
0
50
100
150
200
250
Fig. 4: Meltpressure in front of the screw tip and after grooved feed bush
(source: KKM)
Fig. 5: Spiral shearing section and faceted mixing section after a barrier section
properties
successful,
have
proved
also for direct
Homogenizing elements
Barrier
section
Good dispersive/
distributive mixing effect
such
TMR,
[5].
good
them
have
an
inadequate
selfcleaning system and others
have problems with wear and
tear. Apart from this, it is
essential that the melt is 100 %.
Operation
with
barrier
screws
With barrier screws, designed
according to the principle of
Dray and Lawrence screws, the
solids channel has been made
wider. This provides a larger
contact surface area for the
material being melted so as to
introduce energy via the barrel
heating. This means that, with
barrier screws,
process
must
the
be
heating
started
and to
capacity.
raise
the
melting
Practical experience
The broad range of application
of barrier screws for polyolefins
can be seen in Fig. 9. All these
materials were successfully
processed with the same 50
mm/28 D screw with a twinspiral shearing section and a
faceted mixing section on a
grooved barrel extruder. Further
details are contained in one of
the later articles.
High-speed extrusion systems
are generally characterized by
the fact that the system is set up
to suit a limited range of raw
materials, but so as to achieve
Fig. 10: Production data with extruder 150mm/33:1 for steel pipe coating
215
700
Extruder 150 mm / 20 D
PE-HD Lupolen 4261A
with 50 % regrind
Throughput [kg/h]
500
210
205
400
300
200
200
[kg/h]
[C]
195
100
600
190
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
10
Extruder
concepts
for
mLLDPE.
materials
The
goal
of
the
can be
existing
DT
DN
A
L
n = D(mm)/5
DT - DN= ca.4mm
B = 7 - 8mm
H = 3 - 3,5mm
= 7 - 8
L = 3 - 3,5 D
11
Fig. 14: Specific throughput vs. Screw speed for grooved feed extruder 80 mm/30:1
(source: Reifenhuser [6])
Basically, it can be said that
mPE can also be run on
extruders used for processing
LLDPE. This applies both to
grooved barrel machines and
smooth-bore
extruders
[6].
However, because of the
specific material properties,
there is a difference in the
throughput rates (Fig. 14) which,
in turn, leads to differences in
melt temperature (Fig. 15) and
outputs. On the other hand, this
phenomenon is not specific to
metallocene.
One of the most important
factors
concerning
the
conveying properties in the feed
section is evidently not the free
flowing characteristics or the low
degree of hardness of the
granules. In fact, the large
influence of lubricants as can
be seen in Fig. 16 indicates
that friction on the surface of the
screw plays a major role,
12
EXCEED in Blends
kg/rpm/h
3.2
3
Increase: 10 %
15 %
20 %
2.8
2.6
2.4
EXCEED
+5%
LDPE
1MI /
0.918D
1MI /
0.918D
+5%
2.2
2
LDPE
no slip
EXCEED
EXCEED
with
slip
80mm
24 L/D
grooved
+5%
LDPE
1MI /
0.918D
+ 10 %
+ 20 %
+ 30 %
LDPE
LDPE
LDPE
with
slip
with slip
80mm
30 L/D
grooved
75mm
25 L/D
grooved
Fig 16: Influence of slip agent on specific throughput with mPE (source: EXXON [7])
For engineering plastics (i.e.
polyamides,
polyesters,
polyurethanes or thermoplastic
elastomers), use is nowadays
predominantly made of smoothbore extruders. This is due not
only to "tradition", but also to the
predominantly low throughputs
involved. Plastics of this kind
can,
however,
also
be
processed without problem on
grooved barrel extruders, as is
shown in [8]. For blow molding
with PA6, a grooved bush/screw
concept similar to the one used
for PE has given good results
[9].
Grooved feed sections are also
being increasingly used in
extruders with a barrel venting
system. The grooves with a
semi-circular, sickle, saw-tooth
or rectangular cross-section
are either cut in the one-part
barrel, or a normal grooved
bush concept is used. This
means that the construction of
the
13
almost
"boundless".
shown elsewhere.
requirements
of
waste
processing, it must be said that
Retrofitting
the system
Whenever
of
post-consumer
to
funds
This
is
optimize
for
capital
Fig. 17: Production data with grooved feed extruder 60mm/24:1 after installing a barrier mixing screw
(source: Kuhne)
14
One
important
concerned
with
aspect
protection
corrosion-resistant
armored
layer. Apart from the fact that
this approx. 1.5 2 mm thick
coat can be adapted to suit the
particular type of stress, it also
offers, with its
consistent
properties, a certain "reserve" of
wear and tear, even if the
process engineering parameters
are not quite right.
For small and medium-sized
wear-protected screws (up to
approx. 50 mm), fully hardened
tool steel is used, particularly
cold work steel X 155 CrVmO
12.1 (DIN 1.2379). To achieve a
(limited) corrosion resistance,
frequent use is made of
rustproof, acid-resistant 17 %
chrome steel X 35 CrMo17 (DIN
1.4122).
By
ionitriding
to
increase the surface hardness,
however, this material loses
some of its corrosion resistance.
For
very
high
corrosion
protection, it is preferable to
choose special materials, e.g.
Inconel 625.
With larger screws, it is common
to armor-plate the screw flights,
which are particularly prone to
wear and tear. This involves
using the tungsten inert gas arc
welding or the plasma-powder
application
(PPA)
welding
method. The most popular
materials for this are nitride
steel, 30 CrMoV9 (DIN 1.8519)
and 14 CrMoV6.9 (DIN 1.7735),
or chrome steel X 35 CrMo17
(DIN 1.4122). Hard alloys such
as Stellite 12, Colmonoy 50,
Colmonoy 56, Colmonoy 83 etc.
inserted
hard
to
the
produced
15
vanadium carbide.
Rel. Wear
5
4
3
2
1
0
0
10
20
30
40
Vol.-% VC
Material
X 220 CrVMoW 20 4
X 250 CrVMoW 22 6
X 260 CrVMo 26 4
X 270 CrVMoW 17 9
X 310 CrVMoW 15 10
X 340 VCrWMo 13 13
X 350 VCrMoW 13 9
X 380 VCrWMo 17 13
X 410 VCrWMo 17 14
X 450 VCrWMo 18 13
X 500 VCrWMo 20 13
Element [Gew.- %]
C
Cr
V
2,2
20
4,1
2,5
21,6
6
2,6
26
4
2,7
17
9
3,1
15,2
10,3
3,4
12,8
13,3
3,5
8,5
13
3,8
12,5
17
4,1
14
17
4,5
13
18
5
13
19,5
16
VC [Vol.- %]
6,9
10,3
6,2
15,7
18
23,4
22,8
29,7
29,5
31,1
33,4
References
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
Grundlagen
und
Systemoptimierung.
Reihe
Grundlagen
und
Systemoptimierung.
Reihe
[7]
[8]
[9]
In
Blasformen
97
Innovationen
und
unverstrkten
Perspektiven.
Reihe
Llsdorf,
P.:
40
Jahre
Verschleischutz
fr
Schnecken
und
Zylinder
in
17