Today at a local job fair at my college I ran into a bunch of businesses that didn’t seem to spark my interest with career wise decisions. Then I saw one table all the way in the back, two gentlemen who work for a plastic extrusion company. They told me the basic ideas of what Plastic Extrusion is and that the process is very interesting and is used more than one would think. plastic manufacturing is used in the manufacturing of common products such as piping, wire insulation and plastic sheeting. I listened to all the gentlemen very closely but felt that they just made me more interested in finding every detail of the process. So I set off doing some studying and found out ‘the works’ of Plastic Extrusion. Polymer extrusion is a manufacturing process that melts plastic, shapes it into its profile, and cut to any length.

I found it interesting how my use of adhesive tape everyday must be the product of plastic extrusion or simple things such as window frames. AS the process begins, small beads of plastic are fed into a heated extruder cavity or cylinder.

Not all extrusion processes but some use ultraviolet inhibitors that are added to the raw plastic beads as well. While the plastic is in the machine,

the raw plastic moves through an opening in the extruder cavity towards a screw mechanism. While this happens the screw rotates, forcing the plastic material to advance through the extruder cavity.

The temperature in the extruder cavity is a high 400 degrees F. It needs to be this high in temperature due to it needing to match up with the melting temperature of the plastic beads. It may take 3 heaters at separate times to heat down the plastic to its liquid melting point. It reduces the potential for the plastic to overheat.

This piece of information the program explained was how sometimes the friction and pressure serve their own heat separate from the heaters. It was particularly interesting how the heat built up from the pressure can exceed the heat from the heaters causing the heaters to not be necessary and shut off. Then as the plastic comes out a molten lava like material it moves into a die.

After the high temperatures cooling fans are also employed frequently, helping to keep the plastic extrusion cavity at the desired temperature. Now it’s time for the plastic to go into a die. The die gives the plastic its profile after the die, the plastic must be cooled again.

The die is responsible for giving the plastic its profile in this Plastic Manufacturing process. The hot plastic must be cooled after the bath of die, so it gets placed into a sealed water bath. Cooling rolls are set out for plastic sheeting and delicate plastic products instead of the fans. Who knew that one trip to a job fair would turn me into a Plastic Extrusion expert. It’s interesting the amount of products I come in contact with everyday that are developed from the extruding process. After the cooling process it’s spooled, coiled or cut to length. Sometimes injection molded parts are extruded from certain types of plastic.

Many plastic manufacturing companies create different ways of extruding plastic that are used to create different types of products. plastic product manufacturing is also something I want to check out and get more information on. Overall my research on Plastic extrusion and hurricane shutters really fulfilled my mind that I accomplished something and almost mastered the art of Plastic extrusion.

– Gregory Smith