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PARTS OF EXTRUDER

1. Hopper cylinder It is made of cast steel and is jacketed for watercooling. The insides are made wear resistant by chrome plating or nitrited alloy steel. The insides also have spiral undercuts for high feeding efficiency. 2. Roll feeder The feed roll is operated by the screw by the means of a gear and pinion. The feed roll surface is hardened and an inside chamber for tempering fluid is provided. 3. Forward cylinder The cylinder is made of nitrited alloy steel (for high wear resistance) and peripheral drilling for circulating tempering fluid is provided. Sometimes, bi metallic linings are given. The pins are made of high grade alloy steel hardened for greater wear resistance. 4. Screws The twin screws are made of cast steel and are chrome plated. They are usually bored for cooling. The diameter of normal screws is 60 200 mm with a length of 5 20 times the diameter. The functions of the screw are manifold mixing, blending, homogenizing, dispersing, compounding, degassing. Twin screw extruders are the most commonly used extruders. They can either be intermeshing or nonintermeshing. Nonintermeshing extruders behave like two single screw extruders with only minor interactions between the two screws. Another classification is the direction of rotation of screws. Co rotating screws have both screws rotating in the same direction and the material exchanges from screw to screw. On the other hand, the counter rotating screws have material transported through the extruder in a figure eight channel.

5. Feeding screws They are made of high alloy steel and polished, nitrited or satellite on their tips. They are also drilled for tempering fluid circulation. 6. Dies Many special arrangements of extruder dies are used for composite layered sheets. Two types of rubber enter the die from two extruder barrels and exit as one sheet. The top and bottom layers are of different materials. 7. The mixing chamber The chamber which contains the screws and where the actual mixing takes place. This region is the region of maximum power consumption as well as maximum temperature rise. The throughput of an extruder is typically ~ 400 kg/hr. 8. Vacuum zone A vacuum zone inside the cylinder is created by the use of screws with high thread height. This is done to vent the rubber from inclusions of gases to eliminate porosity. 9. Extruder tempering system Usually it is a closed circuit type with electrical heating. Both single and twin screw extruders may use hot oil circulation systems for temperature regulation. The sump temperature is set to 204 degrees, and the extruder barrel is heated or cooled depending upon internal heat generation. Circulation may be constant (no temperature controllers) or may be adjusted to control individual zone temperatures. 10.Gear reducer The screw speed varies normally from 30 60 rpm. The gear reducer reduces the motor speed to this speed. They are usually provided with forced feed lubrication system. 11.Thrust bearings They form an integral part of the extruder system. Optimized design for long life at the maximum extrusion pressure and screw speed.

What are the control zones inside an extruder? One important thing to note is that all components have bores or channels drilled inside them for cooling purposes. This indicates that the temperature rise inside the extruder is formidable and sufficient measures must be taken to prevent scorching. Also excessive temperature makes the rubber to stick on the screw and make mixing inefficient. Too low a temperature gives uneven flow, bad surface, large expansion and large shrinkage on the length of the product. Also the mixing chamber or the barrel is divided into a number of zones depending on whether it is cold (more zones) or preheated (fewer zones) rubber. Each zone has its own temperature control circuit. The zones are roughly 375 450 mm long i.e. a 4.5 inch extruder (~112.5 m) will have 4 6 barrel zones. The number of zones also depends on the L/D ratio, the number of feed points for additives, and the type of material being extruded.

Temperature control is complicated due to several factors. These include heating due to shear rate (It is worthy to note that 80 100% of the heat produced throughout the extruder can be generated by the screw shear alone) caused by screw speed, feed rate changes, resistance offered by the die and difference in process gains for heating and cooling. Say, the screw speed increases; the higher rate of shear in the screw channel increases mechanical work, raising the compound temperature. To aggravate the situation, cooling rate is reduced as screw speed and output rate increase. But suppose the pressure is low a sin the case of low resistance die size, the amount of frictional heat may not be sufficient to overcome the decrease in conducted heat, in this case an increase in screw speed results in consequent drop in temperature. At higher pressures, the temperature may show an initial increase before dropping and at still higher pressures, the same screw and operating conditions can give an increased temperature with increasing screw speed. What all come out of extrusion? The main tire components that come out of extrusion are sidewall and

tread. Other parts include the apex, sidewall and inner liner.

Behaviour of Rubber in Extruder Inside the extruder, The pressure varies linearly from feed hopper to head Screw speed controls output The tuber output rate of any die can be predicted if the screw dimensions, speed and the pressures are known Flow Mechanism The rotating screw inside the barrel induces a rotational velocity to the stock in addition to the longitudinal movement of the stock. The main effect of this movement is the equalisation of temperature throughout the stock because of the rapid turnover and the effect of the wiping action of the stock on the walls of the barrel and the screw. Drag Flow The resistance to the forward movement induced by dragging against the walls. This is the basic phenomenon by which the material gets conveyed to the other end of the screw.

Flow Mechanism inside the Extruder Pressure Flow The high pressure at the head side and the relatively low pressure at the feed end of the screw induces the screw to attempt a back-flow against the drag flow. This results in the back outs while running the extruder. Leakage The backward flow through the clearance between the screw and wall as a result of the increased pressure gradient from the hopper to head. Depends on Screw-Barrel clearance Manifests undesirable extrusion characteristics Increased residence time and therefore scorch The negative flows as above reduces the output of the extruder

Extruder output Output of Extruder(Q) = Q(Drag) -Q(Pressure) -Q(Leakage) Extruder Output Calculations Theoretical output Output = Rpm of screw X Volume per flight Volume per Flight = L [D2/4- d2/4] (Single flight Screw) Where, L is the length of the flight D is the Diameter of the screw d is the diameter of the root Actual output Output = Theoretical output - Back flow Back flow = Pressure Flow + Leakage Screw efficiency = Actual output Theoretical Output (Normally about 40-45% for Rubber extruders)

EXTRUDER OUTPUT CALCULATIONS

COOLING OF TREADS To prevent scorching inside the tread To avoid soft extrudate-deformations while booking To prevent high stichout in building, leading to non-uniform gauge distribution Cooling conveyors are used to cool the tread by spraying chilled water on the tread through nozzles provided both side of the cooling conveyor.

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