This book uses a practical, down-to-earth presentation to show how quality in extrusion can be measured, controlled, and improved. In particular, it conveys an understanding of how extruders should be controlled and what good, closed-loop controls can accomplish. It will prove most helpful in improving and stabilizing the extrusion process, thus facilitating a more successful operation.

From the Introduction: “...Modern [extruder] control systems are enormously more capable than they were in the old days. Used properly, we do not control the same things [as in the past], and we do not do it in the same ways. The difference is like night and day...It is, of course, essential that your engineers, operators, and maintenance people understand thoroughly what this new generation of controls can do and how it is done. That is the objective of this book — to give your people, in terms they can understand, the knowledge of what hi-tech control equipment can do for them, and how it can be applied and maintained.”

Target Audience: Engineers, technicians, maintenance and quality assurance personnel, machine operators, and any other reader concerned with the extrusion process.

Table of Contents:

Introduction — The Extrusion Line

Control of the Machine — The Concepts of Total Control, Control of Temperature, Control of RPM

Control of the Process — Control of the Plastic

Control of the Final Product — Sheet Extrusion, Tubing, Other Types of Extruded Products, Unattended Operation

Plant-Wide Control and Management

Statistical Quality Control

Index