Jee, Buriak, Torres
Additional Information - Posters # 2006 Washington DC
In a pipe manufacturing process, extrusion parameters are optimized to assure the maximum production of quality pipe meeting appropriate standard requirements. As equipment technology has evolved, the use of grooved feed extruders has created a significant improvement in the ability of extruders to manufacture quality pipe at increased rates. In order to evaluate the effect of various key resin parameters on both grooved feed and non-grooved feed extruders, a joint study was conducted on both PE 3608 (formerly PE 3408) and PE 4710 (also known as PE 100 under ISO standards) materials to identify what parameter(s) are key in assuring optimized productivity rates. This poster session will generically and visually describe the parameters evaluated and the results. Using HDPE product formulations with similar melt flow indices and densities, a study was conducted on both grooved feed and non-grooved feed equipment to address the effect of pellet count, pellet size, and pellet configuration on extrusion productivity or output. An experiment was conducted where upon optimizing the extrusion equipment on a typical “control” sample indicative of pellet count, pellet size, and pellet configuration of pipe grade resins, additional formulations with differing pellet count, pellet size, and pellet configuration were evaluated.
