Polymer Engineering Center > Research > In-Line Measurement of Polymer Melting Behavior in Single-Screw Extruders

Based on a recent literature survey conducted by us, existing experimental apparati and techniques designed to study the melting and mixing behavior of polymers inside the screw extruder suffer from limited functions or tedious procedures. This study targets an in-line, non-invasive measuring device that can gather experimental data with reasonable accuracy and at short response times with a highly instrumented single-screw extruder with built-in sensors and modular screw sections. The proposed system includes a fully instrumented 45-mm production scale single-screw extruder capable of running under industrial conditions. In addition, the modular sections of the screw will be assembled to form various screw designs and constructions for characterizing their effectiveness. In addition to the series of pressure transducers and thermocouples mounted on the barrel wall, special optical, infrared, ultrasonic, and dielectric sensors will be tested with the instrumented extruder. By sensing the difference in properties between the melt and the solid phase, this versatile apparatus will deliver real-time information revealing the polymer melting behavior without adding thermal history to the polymer as is done with the screw extraction approach.

Anticipated benefits:

• To understand the melting and mixing behavior of polymers inside the screw extruder and validate and improve the predictive tool for extrusion process.
  

• To establish the know-how for optimizing the screw design, controlling the process, and enhancing the part quality and throughput for extruded products.