•EXTRUSION

Screw Extruder

• Extruders, consisting of a screw to move the material

Extrusion
forwards, a barrel around the screw to contain the material,

help it move, and provide part of the temperature control.

• The back end has a hopper, sometimes with feed rollers, to

put rubber into the screw, and the front end has a ‘head’ to
Extruder
 • The ram extruder pre-dates the screw extruder, but it is still used in
certain specialized applications.
• Here, the screw is replaced by a ram
Ram Extruder • Process is discontinuous
• Suited to making preforms for further use
• Rotating blade is fitted in front of the die
 The system is designed to build up
compression at the discharge end, to
ensure consolidation of the material in the
Operation head.
and This can be realized in a number of ways,
such as reducing the screw pitch
processing towards the front.

An important design variable is the ratio of

the length to the diameter of the screw, the
L/D ratio.
 Extruders that use pre-warmed rubber compound, hot
feed extruders, (pre-warming on a mill for example) use
a small ratio, for example 6:1,
While those using rubber compound at room
temperature, cold feed extruders, need a larger ratio, for
example 12:l
This longer length is needed since the initial part of the
screw is used to heat up the compound.
L/D Ratio
Vent To Escape Trapped Air

Some extruders have a vent from the screw cavity

through the barrel to the outside, to allow the escape of
any air trapped in the compound.
 Die Swell

• In die swell, extrusion shortens the length and increases cross section of the extruded
profile than it is dimensionally designed.
• Die swell depends on –

• Die design, screw speed (i.e., shear rate)

• Temperature, compound’s viscosity and elasticity

• In practice, die swell can be quite complex and it might be necessary to modify the die a
number of times, before the required extrusion shape is achieved

• This recognizes that even uncured rubber has complex elastic and plastic behavior.
 Die
Swell
• This recognizes that even uncured rubber has complex elastic and
plastic behavior. Like an elastic band it can undergo elastic recovery on exiting the die.
• Chemist Formulation for Increasing plasticity

• The chemist tries to formulate his compound to decrease uncured elastic behavior and
increase plasticity.

• For example, he might do this by adding a material called Factice or other process aids to
the formulation

• Factice is vulcanized unsaturated vegetable or animal oil, used as a processing aid

and property modifier in rubber
• Effect of Temperature
• Increased plasticity can also be achieved if the temperature of the
compound moving through the extruder is progressively increased as it
moves towards the die and it then becomes softer (lower viscosity) and more plastic

• A very low hardness vulcanizate is often made from a low viscosity uncured compound.
• This can sometimes cause sagging of the extrusion before it is cured. If
some of the raw gum elastomer in the compound is replaced by a partially cross-linked
grade, then the

• firmness of the extrudate is improved. This helps control the extrudate dimensions. Such
• elastomer grades are available for CR, NBR, NR and SBR.
Reducing Die
Swell
• For a given material, die swell may be reduced by:

• Decreasing the extrusion rate

• Increasing melt temperature

• Increasing the length of the die parallel or lands

• Streamlining and/or reducing the die entry angle

• Often the addition of a lubricant will reduce the die swell.

• The lubricant will cause slip at the wall and ease the flow of polymer through the die.

• Broadening the molecular weight distribution of a material will also reduce die swell.
 Stretching or Drawing
down of Extrudate
It is common industrial practice to compensate
for die swell by stretching, or drawing down,
the extrudate so that it can just pass through a
sizing die

It should be noted that

1) it is not necessary that the two be
exactly balanced
2) drawing down causes molecular orientation,
which gives rise to an increase in strength in the
flow direction and a decrease in directions
transverse to the flow. This may or may not be
desirable.
 Reduced Interblending and Use of Pin Barrel
• Tradition extruder gives reduced interblending of material as it moves along the screw

• This causes -

• Uneven temperature distribution in the extrudate, which translates to a variable

viscosity and therefore a continuously changing die swell.
Extrude
• Layers of compound move along without intermingling, i.e., in laminar flow.
r
• Higher shear rates in the extruder cannot prevent laminar flow in the screw flights
Pin Barrel Extruder
• To solve this Pin barrel extruder was introduced with pins protruding from the
inside of the barrel towards the screw
• This breaks up the layers,

• mixes them,

• reducing thermal variation and

• increasing homogenization
Criteria for Machine Selection
• Feed Condition - Pre-heated Feed

• Cold Feed Extruders

• By eliminating the warm-up mill before feeding
a cold feed extruder helps in economic sense as
well as reduces the heat cycle for rubber
compounds. High L/D ratios are used for these
extruders for example 12:l
• If the feed is preheated before feeding into
the extruder, then hot feed extruders are
used.
• The hot-feed rubber extruder is usually
characterised by a relatively large screw

• This longer length is needed since the initial

depth and a relatively short length:diameter

part of the screw is used to heat up the ratio for example 6:1
compound.
Criteria for Machine Selection

• Blending Requirements

• For achieving high level of blending and to achieve more uniform temperatures pin barrel
extruders are used
• Elimination of Unwanted Gases
• The vacuum extruder was developed to eliminate unwanted gases from rubber compounds,
so that the profiles produced from stocks could be vulcanised at atmospheric pressure
without problems of porosity occurring.
• The first part of the screw effectively functions as a cold-feed extruder, passing the
material to a vacuum zone. The second part then pumps the material to the die
 Criteria for Machine Selection

• Low Temperature and Small quantities Extrusion

• For Extrusion at low temperature and processing small quantities rubber Ram
extruder could be used.

• Other advantage of using Ram extruder are


Easy to clean.

Useful to short runs.