Extrusion

Film Extrusion

Stretching the Limits of Film Innovation

The four partners who started FlexTech Packaging Inc. in Cincinnati three years ago all came from high-profile jobs with big packaging companies like James River and Jefferson Smurfitt.

Read More
Sheet Extrusion

Genpak Pioneers in PET Foam Sheet

 Soon after Genpak LLC launched its line of CPET trays for commercial baking in the early 1990s, the firm chose foamed PET as its next R&D target.

Read More
Film Extrusion

Flatter Film Extrusion For the Win

When Charter Films began operations three years ago in Superior, Wis., its goal was to supply high-end converting markets in the region with blown films of better quality than those of much larger rivals.

Read More
Film Extrusion

Catch a Falling Company

Peter Schulz had recently retired from Hoechst Celanese in Dallas, and Richard Nurse was a consultant, when both were called in to help shape up BPI Packaging Technologies Inc. in North Dighton, Mass.

Read More
color

Single-Screw Mixing 101

Almost all processes using a single screw require some degree of mixing, whether it’s just to homogenize regrind with virgin resin or to mix in some color concentrate.

Read More
dies

How to Spec a Flat Die

So it’s time for you to buy a new die for film or sheet.

Read More
Sheet Extrusion

Twin-Screw Demo System for Sheet Extrusion from Undried PET

Leistritz has installed ZSE-27 and ZSE-50 Maxx twin-screw extrusion systems in its Somerville, N.J., process laboratory to demonstrate the energy savings possible by reprocessing undried PET in-line with direct sheet extrusion.

Read More

Seven-Layer R&D Line Spurs Blown Film Innovation

Business might be slow in most blown film extrusion markets, but leading-edge processors are preparing for better times by tapping into a seven-layer line installed last year at Dow Chemical Co.’s Film Application Development Center (FADC) in Freeport, Tex.

Read More
sustainability

How Much Regrind Can You Handle?

Most extrusion operations generate scrap, and in the case of sheet for thermoforming it can exceed 70% of total output.

Read More

Where Are You Using Energy?

Few plants are able to accurately divide up their energy consumption by where it occurs, despite the fact that this is relatively easy to do.

Read More
Process Cooling
Plastics Size Reduction