The process of extrusion has lots of types, and one of them is often called plastic extrusion. In this process, raw plastic is used and transformed to create many things like rods, seals, plastic tubing, adhesive tape and plastic sheets by using equipments like plastic extruders.

A few of the most commonly used plastic materials in plastic extrusion are nylon, polycarbonate, acetal, polyethylene, ABS or acrylonitrile butadiene styrene and acrylic.

What are the kinds of plastic extrusion?

1. Blown film extrusion

This technique is used when you want to manufacture plastic films to make shopping bags and objects like that. It is generally similar to a normal extrusion except for the die. In this process, the die used is like an upright cylinder which has a round opening that can be as little as a couple of centimeters in diameter to as big as at least three meters. One advantage of this technique is the quality variations it can offer.

2. Sheet or film extrusion

In this method, the materials are cooled by pulling them through a series of cooling rolls. They are also able to attain the desired surface texture and sheet thickness via this process. A method that follows this particular extrusion method is often called thermoforming, in which a sheet is open to heat until it turns into soft plastic so you can mold it into any shape. But, if you are going to use vacuum when doing this, the technique is known as vacuum forming.

3. Tubing extrusion

In this technique, plastic extruders are used to create tubes such as medical tubing and drinking straws. It's also like regular extrusion except for the die. In this instance, a mandrel or pin is used to extrude hollow sections. You can use one or a few die depending on the number of lumens or holes necessary.

4. Compound extrusion

This technique uses one or a combination of several polymers to make plastic compounds. You might use powder, liquid or pellets as feeds for injection molding & extrusion. Machinery are very beneficial if you decide to use this method. You may get those little laboratory machines or those large extruders found in large industries.

Those are just four of the numerous extrusion processes known nowadays. They have progressed and improved over the years. Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages over the others. Each also needs different kinds of equipment.