Thermoplastic extrusion line operators contend with a wide range of daily challenges. Color changes and contamination are two common and complicated obstacles to maintaining production schedules and producing high-quality end products that meet your customers’ needs. Issues like color streaking, black specks and other material changes can lead to excessive downtime, scrap, and wasted resources. The result? Unnecessary frustration and costs for you.

Why is this problem so rampant?
Complete cleaning is essential for maintaining effective and efficient extrusion production lines. Any material that remains after each run (and accumulates over time), from color pigments to additives, must be entirely removed from equipment, including screws, dies and metering pumps. Thorough purging of all contaminants helps keep lines performing optimally and consistently.

Is manual cleaning the answer?
Manual cleaning takes more time and labor than most producers can spare. Lines must be shut down to complete the task, which significantly cuts into both productivity and revenue. Intensely laborious, manual cleaning also poses safety risks to your teams. None of this is ideal.

Self-emptying technology can make a tremendous difference
Specialty purging compounds can alleviate many complications from the cleaning process and create exceptionally better output consistency. Advanced capabilities, like the self-emptying technology, can make a tremendous difference by facilitating the quick and complete removal of dark colors and carbon from parts. The self-emptying technology is also ideal for machine shutdowns. The equipment will be free of resin residue after using a self-emptying purge compound, resulting in no carbon specks contaminating parts on start-up.

Read more: The Power of Self-Emptying Technology for Extrusion Lines