The selection of the proper screw for a given injection molding or extrusion application can be critical to its success.
Screw geometry — length-to-diameter ratio, profile, channel depth, compression ratio, helix angle and a host of special design features — has everything to do with how well the screw performs in a given application.
There are documented applications where customers have improved production rates or reduced cycle times by 30 or 40% simply by switching to an improved screw design. Similarly, reject rates have been lowered from more than 4-6% to less than 1% by incorporating a custom designed mixing screw.
And experience shows that the amount of color concentrate required to achieve optimum color mix can be typically reduced from 4% (of the total blend) to 2%, just by using an optimized screw design. When considering resin and concentrate costs, payback for an optimized screw and non-return valve design can be almost immediate.
This white paper, published by
Glycon Corporation, provides an in-depth look into plastics industry feed screw design.
