Many other factors can influence the extrusion process, such as ambient temperature, relative humidity, air currents around the extruder, and plant voltage variations.
Measurement of melt pressure is important for two reasons, one: process monitoring and control and two: safety. The diehead pressure in the extruder determines the output from the extruder. It is the pressure necessary to overcome the flow resistance of the die. When the diehead pressure changes with time, the extruder output will change correspondingly and, with it, the dimensions of the extruded product. As a result, when we monitor how the pressure varies with time, we can see exactly the stability or lack of stability of the extrusion process It is best, therefore, to plot pressure with a chart recorder or, better, to monitor the variation of pressure with a data acquisition system. A simple analog or digital display of pressure is much less useful.
It is also critically important to measure pressure in the extruder to prevent serious accidents that can happen when excessively high pressures occur. Under some circumstances, very high pressures can be generated in the extruder, causing the extruder to explode. The barrel can crack open under excessive pressure or the die may explode off the extruder. Either situation is extremely dangerous and should be avoided if at all possible. All extruders should have an over-pressure safety device, such as a rupture disk or a shear pin in the head clamp. Even with such an over-pressure safety device, the extruder should have at least one melt pressure measurement because over-pressure devices may not work properly or may have been disabled. Pressure can build up very quickly without a warning and cause a catastrophic explosion. For that reason an over-pressure shutdown should be used; this automatically turns off the extruder drive when the pressure exceeds a critical value.
Pressure Transducers
The most common pressure transducers in extrusion are the strain gage transducer and the piezo-electric transducer. The strain gage transducer can be either a capillary or a pushrod transducer. In these transducers there are two diaphragms, one in contact with the plastics melt and one some distance away from the hot plastics melt. In the capillary type the two diaphragms are linked hydraulically, while in the pushrod type there is a mechanical link. A strain gage is attached to the second diaphragm to measure the deflection. This deflection can be related to the pressure at the first diaphragm.
Most capillary transducers are filled with Mercury. Since the diaphragm of the transducer is quite thin, there is a danger of rupture of the diaphragm and leakage of Mercury into the plastics and into the workplace. Since the type of liquid fill is often not shown on the transducer label, Mercury contamination may occur unknowingly!
Another transducer is the pneumatic pressure transducer. It has good robustness, but poor temperature sensitivity, poor dynamic response, and average measurement error.
Pneumatic transducer:
• Good robustness
• Poor temperature sensitivity
• Poor dynamic response
• Average measurement error
The capillary transducer has fair robustness, fair temperature sensitivity, and fair dynamic response. The total measurement error varies from 0.5 to 3% dependent on the quality of the transducer.