화학공학소재연구정보센터
Polymer Engineering and Science, Vol.50, No.3, 543-549, 2010
Flow Balancing in Die Design of Wood Flour/HDPE Composite Extrusion Profiles with Consideration of Rheological Effect
This article presents an experimental study on the flow balance of an extrusion die for various wood flour (WF)/high-density polyethylene (HDPE) compositions. Flow balancing, in the design of a thermoplastic extrusion die, is dependent on the material rheological properties so that a change in the material, in some cases, may result in a total redesign of the die. To investigate the importance of this particular effect, the flow balance of an extrusion die, with a U-shaped profile having uneven wall thicknesses, was undertaken. The main feature of the die was an adjustable restrictor implemented for fine balancing similar to that employed in the slit dies. The rheological influence of wood plastic composites (WPCs) on the flow balance of the die via loading various WF contents, 40, 60, and 70% by weight, was experimentally investigated; flow balancing was performed via varying the height of the restrictor bar. Interestingly, the results showed that, for a high WF content (above 60%), the issue of flow balancing for an uneven wall thickness profile is much less complicated because of the plug flow behavior of the composite. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 50:543-549, 2010. (C) 2009 Society of Plastics Engineers