Extrusion
Hot melt extrusion is a continuous polymer processing technique that allows, by the action of pressure and temperature, the formation of fixed cross-sectional profile. The process versatility allows the manufacture of a diverse range of products such as films, sheets, fibres, tubing, filament coating.
At APT we house multiple extruders for the manufacture of different products to answer the needs of a wide range of applications in the polymer area.
Multilayer Film Extrusion
Our lab-scale Cast co-extrusion multilayer film line allows the manufacture of high-performance polyolefin-based and biodegradable films with excellent properties. This modular system allows the design of films of three and five layers through the combination of up to three different materials within thicknesses between 10 and 400 microns and widths of 180 mm.
This lab-scaled film coextrusion technology favours the development and optimisation of novel films in a cost-effective and timely manner, reducing material investment, production interruptions and the possibility of increasing the number of trials.
Profile and Filament Extrusion
Profile extrusion refers to the production of continuous shapes of plastics with a wide variety of configurations such as pipes, straws, tubing, filaments or any specific shape. Different cross-sectional profiles, of diverse shapes and dimensions, are achievable by the customisation of the die, cooling and haul-off system.
Among the application, our profile and filament extrusion capabilities allow the manufacture of novel filaments for additive manufacturing applications as well as reprocessing for palletising of novel compounds and recyclable materials.
Melt Spinning
Melt spinning line for the manufacture of technical synthetic fibres of materials such as Polyesters, Nylons and Polypropylene. The unit comprises a 25 mm single screw extruder (L/D 25) with the optional fully automatic production mode with a closed loop feedback control from the melt pump for an optimum and non-interrupted throughput, whilst also allowing full data acquisition capabilities for pressure/temperature curve analysis. The line is equipped with an 80-hole spinneret head from where the fibres travel through the cooling box with blower and onto the two heated godet rollers which are all fully controllable in terms of temperature and speed for efficient draw-down ratios.
Extrusion Blown Moulding
The Labtech LBM-125 is a single-layer continuous extrusion blow-moulding machine. It has a bottle capacity up to 125ml, a clamping force of 25kN and a daylight opening of 100mm. The Labtech machine is fitted with a 20mm single screw with a compression ratio of 3.25:1 and a L/D of 20:1. On the screw there is a Maddoc shear mixing element followed by a Pineapple disruption mixer before exit. Its maximum operating temperature is 350 °C. The barrel itself is fitted with both rupture disc, melt temperature probe and pressure probe located before the breaker plate. This particular machine has closed pressure loop control built to aid in steady head pressure during trials/production. Its parison can be manually controlled for wall thickness and is 25mm in diameter. This can be altered by changing tooling geometry. The machine has four zones on the barrel controlled by PID and 3 zones on the blow-moulding attachment. There is also the capability to run an insert tool which can hold 3D printed tooling.
Equipment
- Eurotech Cast Film Co-extrusion line, 200mm 3/5 layer film system
- Labtech 250ml Blow-moulding
- 3D Filament extruder, 12 spools per hour
- 40 mm Boston Matthews Tube Extrusion Line
- Lab-scale Blown Film Extrusion Line
- Melt-Spinning Fibre Line
- 25mm Betol Cast Film Extrusion Line
- 40 mm Boston Matthews Tube Extrusion Line
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