SPE offering free extrusion troubleshooting webinars for Ontario, Quebec members

The Ontario chapter of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) is offering SPE Ontario and Quebec members free access to a series of weekly one-hour webinars on process engineering and troubleshooting in extrusion – a $200 value.

The series is scheduled to start on 14 March at 1:00pm, and each seminar will be recorded with a link sent to the attendees.

The first half of the series will be presented by Dr. John Perdikoulis, president of Compuplast North America, who has over thirty years of experience in the plastics processing industry.

The second half will be presented by Paul Waller, president of Plastics Touchpoint Group, who has over 40 years of experience in plastics manufacturing, and will concentrate more on troubleshooting.

The series is geared to extrusion, but SPE Ontario says that many of the concepts covered can be helpful in other areas of plastics manufacturing as well.

“This series is an excellent opportunity for our members to increase their technical knowledge, and we encourage you to take advantage of this offer,” said Chris Butryn, Ontario SPE.

Click here to register. The webinar topics, and presenters, are:

Part 1

Dr. John Perdikoulis

Lecture 1: Introduction and Material Properties

The first lecture will introduce the importance of material properties when engineering extrusion equipment. The most important material properties will be explained, and how they can be determined.

Lecture 2: Design Criteria

This lecture will present some process design criteria and recommended values for designing equipment so as to avoid many of the common problems.

Lecture 3: Introduction to the Extruder

This section will introduce the unit operations that occur in a single screw extruder. The topics will include Solids Conveying, Melting, Mixing and Conveying, and differences between Smooth Bore and Grooved Feed barrels will be explained.

Lecture 4: Barrier Screws

This lecture will describe various types of barrier screw designs and their function. The most common design flaws will be explained.

Lecture 5: Mixing Sections

This section will describe the mixing requirements often required and some of the devices used to achieve them. The Fluted (Maddock) and Spiral Fluted mixer will be described in detail, along with recommendations for optimum performance.

Lecture 6: Breaker Plates, Screen Changers and Adaptors

This lecture will go beyond the extruder to demonstrate some common problems related to Breaker Plates, Screen Changers and Adaptors. The presentation will show how design criteria are applied to optimize the design and eliminate degradation problems.

Lecture 7: Flat Dies (Monolayer)

This lecture will focus on Flat Dies, with some of the most common designs used to make flat film or sheets. The function and interaction of the various sections of the die will be explained.

Lecture 8: Annular Dies (Monolayer)

This lecture will present the various types of annular dies used to produce tubular products like pipe, tubing and film. Advantages and disadvantages of each type of design will be presented.

Part 2

Paul Waller

Lecture 9: Bubble Cooling Systems

This lecture will compare the most commonly available air rings and internal bubble cooling (IBC) systems used in blown film extrusion. Procedures to adjust the various components and assess bubble stability will be included.

Lecture 10: How to Get Rid of Dancing Bubbles

This lecture will demonstrate how to use the bubble stability assessment techniques described in Lecture 9 to eliminate 7 types of bubble instability patterns.

Lecture 11: Botox for Film Manufacturers – How to Get Rid of Wrinkles

This lecture will explain how to identify the root causes of wrinkles and present strategies to minimize them.

Lecture 12: Producing the Perfect Roll – Part 1

This lecture will review the fundamentals of web tension control and terminology to describe defective roll geometry.

Lecture 13: Producing the Perfect Roll – Part 2

This lecture will review techniques to minimize the most common types of defective roll geometry.