Know-How

Extrusion Know How 20 Jul 2020

Extrusion: 'Melt-Blown' Fiber: What You Need to Know to Enter the Face Mask Market

Coronavirus pandemic has made extrusion processors curious about entering the face-mask market. But melt-blown fiber is very different from most other extrusion processes and requires specialized equipment.

best practices 13 Jul 2020

Tooling: How to Properly Size Gates, Runners and Sprues; Part 5 of 5

Get the sprue, runner and gate sizes close to ideal the first time around.

Commodity Resins 10 Jul 2020

Materials: Annealing Tips for Semi-Crystalline Polymers: Part 4

You can forgo the elevated mold temperatures normally recommended for high-performance semi-crystalline materials. But it’s risky and likely to yield parts that under-perform expectations … assuming that they emerge from the annealing process looking anything like the drawing.

Injection Molding 6 Jul 2020

Use This Check List to Get Your Machine Properly Installed

Whether you bought a new machine or one that’s been refurbished, you need to prepare for installation so that it can be executed as seamlessly as feasible. Here some advice.

Extrusion 12 Jun 2020

Extrusion: The Importance of Zone 1 Barrel Temperature

Tweaking the temperature settings of the first barrel zones may not yield the desired result. In fact, they may yield the opposite. Here’s why.

Molds & Tooling 9 Jun 2020

Tooling: How to Properly Size Gates, Runners and Sprues, Part 4

How to get the sprue, runner and gate sizes close to ideal the first time around.

best practices 8 Jun 2020

Part 3 Materials: Annealing Tips for Semicrystalline Polymers

For these polymers, annealing is done to establish a level of crystallinity that cannot be practically obtained within the parameters of a normal molding cycle. Here’s some guidance on setting annealing time and temperature.

best practices 5 Jun 2020

Fundamentals of Proper Press Shutdown

Press shutdown procedures have a significant impact on achieving smooth machine startups and restarts to improve uptime. Here’s a procedure you might want to deploy in your molding operation.

screws 28 May 2020

What You Should Know About Miniature Extrusion Screws

Very small screws have become more common with the growth of additive manufacturing. Designing such screws requires balancing their output requirements with their torque strength.

Tooling Know-How 27 May 2020

Tooling: How to Properly Size, Gates, Runners and Sprues, Part 3

Get the sprue, runner and gate sizes close to ideal the first time around.