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It Ain't Necessarily So by Modern Plastics Worldwide
Some Extrusion Beliefs Too andEasily Taken for
Granted Plastics Today
and presented by

Allan L. Griff
Extrusion Consultant and Educator
August 18, 2010
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The Right Screw will solve all problems
(the heart-transplant syndrome)
The real world is seldom “right” vs “wrong” -- more often it’s worse, OK,
better, best ..
Who decides what the “right” screw is, and on what basis? Remember
that it depends on output rate, back pressure, product thickness, melt
index, barrel temps, scrap %, other factors, even for the same resin.
Remember that screw design is not only dimensions and special features,
but also materials, coring, driven-end design, ease of removal, tolerances
and delivery time.
Don’t forget the barrel: the screw may be OK, but the barrel may not.
Financial: Is existing equipment already paid for? What don’t you buy if
you get a new screw? How much new money (not just a percentage)
would be earned if the screw were replaced?
More on screws ...
Screws and surging: a common belief is that worn screws cause surging (linear
mass and thickness variation). It is sometimes used to justify replacing or
rebuilding a screw. There are many explanations of surging, from erratic feed
to cycling heaters to stick-slip at the start of the compression zone , but I can’t
see how wear can cause variation in the extrusion direction. Don’t let this
belief distract from measuring the surge and seeking its real cause(s).
The way to justify worn-screw replacement is to show how much money is
lost if the screw is NOT replaced, and that usually means the following: (a)
worn screw reduces pumping capacity in lb/rpm, (b) screw must turn faster to
pump the same as before, (c) melt comes out hotter and cooling limits force a
slowdown, and (d) the lost production could have been sold at a profit.
Compression ratio, the ratio of the volumes of the first and last flights, is often
used to define a screw – e.g., “to run this resin, you need a CR of 2.8 to 3.1.”
This may be true with certain machinery and conditions, but it isn’t enough to
define the screw: one screw can have channel depths of 0.200 metering and
0.600” feed, and another may have 0.100” and 0.300” – they have the same
compression ratios but are very different screws. Get the numbers!
The Right Profile will solve all problems
By “profile” I mean the shape of the graph of barrel settings: flat profile = all
settings the same, rising profile = cooler in back, inverted profile = hotter in back,
there are valley profiles, hump or camel profiles, etc.

More wishful and simplistic thinking.

There is no “right” profile, even for a given resin. No neat and magic formulas. There
are a thousand PE resins sold around the world – for paper coating, milk bottles,
wire jacketing, garment bags, etc. How can there be one “right profile” for PE that
applies to all these, or even just all film? However, like Compression Ratio, it is a
simplifying concept that won’t go away.
The best profile depends on much the same things as the screw design: rate, temps,
back pressure, product thickness, melt index/viscosity and its shear rate
dependence, barrel temps, scrap %, barrel heat-cool efficiency, other factors.
One more thing left out of the profile concept is the importance of rear barrel
temperature, which controls “inpush” and thus affects the screw speed needed to
achieve a given rate. It should be selected and changed independent of the others.
There is no substitute for trial based on experience and sometimes backed up by
computer simulation, if viscosity data are reliable.
 Speed Kills
in a car … as a drug … but in extrusion?

Doesn’t everyone want to run as fast as possible?

Yes, but
if running faster means looser thickness tolerances, it pits
product failure vs wasting material
…also
More rpm may mean hotter melt (the 4 evils)
Older machines may “fall apart” sooner
Can you store it?
Can you sell it?
 Power costs are killing us!

Displacement of anxiety about gasoline costs, problems with Iraq, gang war in
Mexico, and the big oil spill…

But not only ain’t it necessarily so, it’s almost impossible ..

because
An extruder is a very efficient machine – it converts mechanical energy (the
motor) into the heat needed to melt the plastic

If we put too much energy in, we risk the four evils of overheating:
1. Polymer breakdown
2. Cooling problems (lower rate?)
3. Sizing problems (sticking, ovaling, sagging)
4. Additive effects: yellowing, losing volatile additives, reactions
So why do we have such a high energy bill?

Look at other equipment, especially dryers, stretching systems, air chillers,

thermoformers, and power use elsewhere in the plant (especially air conditioning).

Are the necks and heads of the extruders shamelessly exposed? Insulate (Pyropel,
magnets, Velcro).

Get an energy audit or do it yourself. Deal with power factors, reuse of cooling air
to heat up feed, water-cool efficiently (old rags, do you really need refrigeration?)

But don’t blame the extruder until you do the numbers

(heat needed to get a lb or kg from feed temp to melt temp)
x (lb or kg per hour) = energy/hour

1 Kilocalorie = 4186 joules = 0.001163 kilowatt-hour

Up Against the Plate

Screen Packs are put in with the coarsest screen next the breaker plate, right?

Yes, but …
they also work when put in “backward,” with the finest screen next to the plate!

Doesn’t that fine screen get easily blown through the big breaker plate holes?
No, because the bigger pieces of contamination are caught on the coarser
screens, and the pressure differential across the fine screen isn’t very much –
and it’s the differential that blows screens, not the absolute pressure.

This reverse order also makes it unnecessary to put in a cover screen to protect
the finest screen from exposure to the spiral flow that gets “broken” in the
breaker plate. (That is where the name came from.)

Of course, if you are concerned that the pack might be put in backward, you can
use a sandwich pack, coarse on the outsides, fine inside, such as 20-50-100-50-
20 (wires/inch) and pay more for screens but gain peace of mind.
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 What a Difference an A Makes!

The difference is between the MELT temperature and the METAL

temperature.
The temperature of the metal (the walls of the barrel, head and die) may or
may not be representative of what’s inside.
Measure the melt as well, with an immersion thermocouple, maybe with
variable depth.
Also, it may be useful to measure with an infra-red “gun” directed at the melt
as it emerges. Know the angle that it measures, scan round extrudates
for max reading, avoid reading die surfaces.
No thermocouple or IR gun? You can get an idea of internal melt
temperature by changing a control value in the adapter so that the heater
just goes on and right off again.
Trust the supplier?

Yes, but.
Trust is a way of shifting responsibility.
Yes, you may be able to get them to take it back
but at what cost (time, money, relationship)?
Are you testing what comes in?
Are you recording test results, performance data, and label
markings (photos?)
The Lords of the Flies (a story)
Once is Not Enough

At least, not when you are doing physical testing. It's best to
get the average of three (better, five) tests: if all the values
are clustered closely, you can trust the average more. If one
or two values are very high or very low, test a few more; it
may be contamination (stress concentrators) or a poorly
made blend.
It takes some courage to do more tests when the results of a
few show you what you want to see. Don’t rock the boat!
But responsible testing means reliable results.
 $CRAP I$N'T ALWAY$ A LO$$
We save it for economic reasons. If we can work it right back into the feed, that is
best of all.
Some scrap enhances physical properties (HDPE where cross-linking occurs faster
than chain breakage)
Keep it cleaned and screened, to avoid contaminants that can act as stress
concentrators (promote cracking).
Use colors to mask yellowing that is expected with reprocessed resin. Oil of violet
is good, carbon black is best of all.
True recycling is of greatest value when it replaces the purchase (hence the
making) of the equivalent new material.
ULS-FOS-TANA = Use Less Stuff, Fix Old Stuff, Throw Almost Nothing Away!
 Ten Key Principles of Extrusion
1. Screws for single-screw extruders are usually right-hand thread , and turn counter-
clockwise (looking from the rear), as if to unscrew themselves back-ward out of the
barrel. A fixed thrust bearing takes the backward force, while the matching forward
force (Newton) pushes the plastic melt out of the die. In twins, the screws may turn
in either direction or both, but the principle is the same.

2. Most of the heat that melts the plastic comes not from the heaters but from the
motor, whose energy is converted to frictional heat in the barrel, as the turning screw
overcomes the resistance of the viscous plastic mass. Exceptions, where heater
energy is significant, are very small extruders, slow-moving twin-screws, some high-
temperature plastics, and extrusion coating.

3. Motor speed is reduced by a factor of 10 to 30 to get reasonable screw speeds –

lowest for very small machines (need residence time) and very large machines ((too
much frictional heat).
4. The entering plastic acts as a coolant, as it “melts” by absorbing heat from the motor
and heaters. Normally, the front (output) end is hotter than the rear (feed) end, but if
feed stops, the system levels out and the front transfers heat to the rear, with the risk of
sintering, bridging and sticking to the screw root.

5. In the feed zone, particles must stick to the barrel and slip on the screw, and also stick
to each other as much as possible for maximum feed rate (inpush). However, more isn’t
always better, as a screw can “bite off” (take in) more than the front end wants to “chew”
(pump out).

6. Material is by far the biggest component of manufacturing cost. This means re-using as
much scrap and trim as possible, and the holding of tight tolerances.

7. Energy is a small proportion of the cost of extrusion. Extruders are very efficient
machines, and excess energy would overheat the plastic and make it unextrudable.

8. Pressure at the screw tip is important, as it relates to safety, mixing, buildup on the
screens, and thrust bearing wear. This pressure is the cumulative demand of the head
from screens to die lips, and is not something generated independently in the barrel.
9. Output rate in a full (not starved) extruder is
(a) the drag flow displacement of the last flight, less
(b) the effect of resistance (pressure demand of the head), plus
(c) effect of overbite at the feed.
Leakage over the flights may have an effect, too, negative or positive depending on
the pressure gradient.

10. Typical shear rates are around 100 reciprocal seconds (rsec) in screw channels,
from 100 to 1000 rsec in most die lips, and well above 1000 in flight to wall clearances
and tiny-hole dies. However, ASTM melt index is tested in the 1-10 rsec range.
Proper comparison and description of a melt requires at least two viscosities (not a
ratio), with measurement or extrapolation into practical extrusion range.

11. Heating and cooling through the barrel is always opposed by the motor.
Heating lowers viscosity at the barrel wall, so the motor turns easier and develops less
frictional heat. Cooling is the reverse, thickening the melt at the wall so the motor
must work harder and generate more heat.
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