Development of a modular extruder for the production of recycled and customizable polymers in filament form

• Autor(a) principal: Manica, Ricardo Alberto Henriques
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/173708
• topic: Single screw extrusion; Modular extruder; Extrusion barrel; Extrusion of polymeric materials; Specific energy consumption; Domínio/Área Científica::Engenharia e Tecnologia::Engenharia Mecânica

Up to the present day, extruders utilized in the polymer extrusion industry have been designed to guarantee the extrusion of a vast quantity of polymeric materials. However, when the need arises to extrude a different material not compatible with the existent equipment, a complete replacement of com- ponents becomes necessary, thereby aggravating project’s overall costs. Hence, the development of a modular extruder for the production of recycled and customizable polymers in filament form is evident within the industry. Such modular approach would allow for equipment customization, lowering project costs and broadening the spectrum of materials previously deemed incompatible with current extrusion machinery. To achieve this, the extrusion barrel was divided into three different sections, being each correspondingly aligned with the extrusion stages in which they are situated. The results manifest a promising outlook, showcasing a substantial reduction in production costs when compared with the extruders implemented nowadays in the industry, along with the potential for lowering specific energy consumption levels associated with the extrusion process.