Stratek Plastic Ltd

Extensional / Elongational Flow Mixing
 

 

Events

 

 

May 16-20, 2010
Orlando World Center
Marriott Resort &
Convention Center
Orlando, Florida USA

 

June 7 - 10, 2010 
Fispal Food Service
Expo Center North
São Paulo - Brazil

 
 
   


 
 
Home Colors
Colors

Pigments

E-mail Print PDF
 
Single Screw Alone Single Screw + Tek-MixTM

Why settle for this? 

When you can have this?

 
Single Screw Processing: HDPE with 25% D&C Red #9 (Lake Red C), Organic Pigment
Single Screw Alone:   Extruder Only; single-screw extrusion, let down into PE at 2%, shown on a compression molded sheet; shown at 10X magnification.
Single Screw Feeding a Tek-MixTreater:   Same product as at left, but processed instead using a Tek-MixTM Treater added, let down  into PE at 2%, shown on a compression-molded sheet; shown at 10X  magnification.
Twin-screw Alone Twin-screw + Tek-MixTM
Why settle for this? 

When you can have this?


Twin-screw Processing: The Same HDPE with 25% D&C Red #9 (Lake Red C), Organic Pigment Letdown at 2%, as Above
Twin-screw Alone: Masterbatch by twin-screw, produced 59 to 108 μm diameter random particles; shown at 40X magnification.
Twin-screw Feeding a Tek-MixMixer:  Particle sizes have decreased to18 to 24 μm diameter; shown at 40X magnification.

Example:   Compounding Green from  Blue Masterbatch, Yellow Oxide Powder, and Titaniam Oxide Powder 

Background:  This example illustrates the blending of a blue masterbatch with a yellow inorganic pigment in order to create a homogenous green color. The blue masterbatch (0.48 MFI) with 50% colorant loading (the blue colorant is an organic and inorganic mixture), and thermally sensitive iron oxide yellow powder, were preblended with TiO powder.  This preblend was then mixed with a MFI =1 resin (Petrothene NA 960-000 LDPE) and compounded into pellets.  The yellow powder is extremely shear sensitive and degrades above 180°C, producing red iron oxide, which turns the mixture a dark brown in color.  


The top-left pellets show improved dispersion with the Tek-Mix™ mixer.   Without the Tek-Mix™ mixer, a single-screw extruder with a state-of-the-art dynamic mixer attached (lower right picture), could not, under any conditions, achieve a uniform mixture.

Twin-Screw Alone
Twin-screw + Tek-MixTM
Why settle for this? 
 
When you can have this? 
 
 
100 x magnification, blue + yellow, made from compression molded sheet
Twin-screw Alone: The multi-colored mix above was produced using only a Twin-screw extruder.  The mixture contains the original blue + yellow materials (see below), and after mixing, the resulting product was compression molded into a sheet; shown at 100X magnification. 
Twin-screw Feeding a Tek-Mix™ Mixer: The homogeneous mixture above was made from the same set-up as at left, but in this case, the Twin-screw extruder fed a Tek-MixTM Mixer.  Again, the resulting pellets were compression molded into a sheet; shown a 100X magnification.    
 
Compare the following compression molded Press-Out results: 

(A) Standard Single Screw 
(B) Single Screw with Dynamic Mixer 
(C) Twin-screw Extruder
(D) Single Screw Feeding a Tek-MixTM  Mixer
(A)  Single Screw Alone (B) Single Screw + Dynamic Shear Mixer
Why settle for this? 
 
Or this?

 
Single Screw Alone:   Extruder only using a general purpose conveying screw. 
Single Screw Equipped with a Dynamic Mixer  Same product as at left, but processed instead with the addition of a Dynamic Mixer.
(C)  Twin-screw Alone (D) Twin-screw + Tek-MixTM
Or even this? 
 
When you can have this?

 
Twin-Screw Alone:   Extruder Only; single screw extrusion. 
Twin-screw Feeding a Tek-Mix™ Mixer:  Same product as at left, but processed instead adding a Tek-Mix™ Mixer.

For an overview of Tek-MixTM  Low Temperature processing temperatures click here.

For specific technical data covering the above examples, including processing temperatures, throughput rates, residence times, etc., please contact us.




Tek-MixTM - Extensional / Elongational Flow Mixing
The Next Step in Mixing & Blending



 


Newsflash

From the Stratek Reading Room...

"The Materials Analyst, Part 98:  A Tour of the World of Nylon-Part 1"
An Article by Michael Sepe, published in Injection Molding Magazine - July 2008

Stratek has done considerable experimentation and material processing involving Polyamides (Nylon).  Therefore this article caught our eye when we found it in the July Issue of Injection Molding Magazine.   We think it addresses both the basics and some more advanced information concerning the differences in the chemistry and structure of these two important materials.

Read more...