Once all the raw materials are weighed and blended, into a very fine powder with the consistency of cake flour, the blend is fed into the extruder’s screw — the machine’s fluxing section. Under heat and pressure, the extruder continues the mixing process, evenly dispersing all the additives with the PVC resin. In the fluxing or plastification process, all the separate ingredients fuse together into one homogenous mass of plastic called the “melt.” As the fine powder melts, at approximately 300°F, the extruder kneads the material into a hot, twisted plastic rope. The extruder also helps strain out any foreign particles, which could damage the machinery