Water Cooled Cast Barrel Heaters for Plastic ExtrusionsA manufacturer of plastic extrusions was finding it difficult to maintain tight temperature control on some of his extruder equipment. This was causing product variation that resulted in an increasing amount of scrap.The current heating technology being used in the plastic extrusion process was air cooled (finned) cast aluminum barrel heaters. Although these work fine for many applications, they are not suited for applications in which tight control and fast temperature response are required. We recommended a retrofit of the extruder lines to water-cooled cast barrel heaters. As a trial, the customer retrofitted one machine to see if any improvements were realized. The customer was so pleased with the results, that over the course of 2 years, he changed out all heaters in the plant to water-cooled cast extruder heaters. The variation in temperatures that was causing scrap was eliminated and productivity dramatically improved.
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