A common focus that most plastic extrusion manufacturers share is to prevent product failures. There are several circumstances that can cause product failure; however, contaminants in the plastic are the most common.
When the plastic extrusion manufacturer begins production, raw or recycled materials are melted for filtration. To facilitate melt flow, the melt is subjected to tremendous pressure when passing through a medium, such as a extruder breaker plate.
As the melted plastic passes through the extruder screen, any contaminants that may cause product failure are removed, and the filtered plastic is passed along to the rest of the production process.
Some plastic extrusion manufacturers implement a gear pump following the filtration screen to achieve consistent throughput; however, these gear pumps are sensitive to the impurities found in plastics. If your plastic extrusion process includes a gear pump, it is important that you use finer extruder screen mesh specifications to ensure proper decontamination.