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Plastics Profile Extrusion
Profile Extrusion Case Study: Polymer Choices
Difficult custom extrusion jobs are best left to the experts. An example of one such job is when a profile extrusion manufacturer was asked to produce material to create a Duck Call. The profile extruder would run the tube; and the client would get it milled to the shape of a duck call, polished, and prepared for sale.
The client requested a polycarbonate in three colors be used. The color chips given by the client were sent to suppliers to order the right material. After the tooling was made, a sample run was produced. But after milling and polishing the product, the client realized the material wasn’t exactly what they were looking for. The polycarbonate material, after milling it down, takes a chemical process to polish the surface back to its “shiny state” and they didn’t want to go through this process. So the process was started over using an acrylic and three new colors. (One of the things the client also learned is that acrylic duck calls are preferable to hunters because they make a louder sound and carry farther.)
Five Steps to Plastic Extrusion:
Some clients want to understand how an extruder works and the process of plastic profile extrusion. Plastic products take many different forms – known as plastic profiles to us – but they all start as raw material called resin. In plastic extrusion, resin beads are melted down, filtered for uniform consistency, pushed through a die cut for the final product shape, and then cooled. It’s a complicated process that takes many forms, but here’s a quick breakdown of how it works.
1. Raw plastic is fed into a hopper – along with any colorants or additives – that feeds down into the extruder.
2. The beads flow from the hopper down through the feed throat, which dispenses them onto a large spinning screw operating within a horizontal barrel.
3. The beads pass through the barrel on the screw while being heated to the melting temperature specific to that type of plastic. By the time it reaches the end of the screw, the plastic is thoroughly mixed and has a consistency like thick bubble gum.
4. At the end of the screw, the extruded plastic flows across a screen and a breaker plate, which serve two functions. The screen removes any contaminants or inconsistencies in the plastic, and the breaker plate changes the motion of the plastic from rotational to longitudinal. Now its ready for die.
5. The die for an individual plastic profile is more than just a hollowed-out shape of the final product. It’s designed so that the plastic flows smoothly and evenly from the cylindrical profile of the extruder into the final profile shape. Consistency in this flow is critical to achieving an end product with integrity.
Plastic extrusion is used to produce a wide range of products on the market today, from building materials to consumer products to industrial parts. Pipes, tubing, window frames, electrical covers, fence, edging, and weather stripping are just a few of the common items made by plastic extrusion, along with thousands of custom profiles.
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Lincoln Plastics
Experts in Extrusion Molding
Lincoln Plastics is dedicated to manufacturing high quality plastic extrusion profiles, providing timely deliveries and creating an atmosphere of continuous improvements where all employees strive to keep both internal and external customers satisfied.
Capabilities
Custom Extrusion
Plant & Process
Modern 25, 000 square foot facility optimized for manufacturability and secondary operations
2.5” and 3.5” Extruders
0.5” – 13” flat extrusions
0.5” – 13” round extrusions
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Secondary Operations
Sawing
Cutting
Beveling
Gluing
Tape application
Slotting
Bending, Shaping
Threading, internal & external
Inserts
Drilling
Punching
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Plastic Extrusion Materials
We have the ability to run any resin to meet your specifications and currently inventory:
Polyethylene (s)
Ridged PVC
Flexible PVC
Polypropylene
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