Guest Interview with Harrison McVeigh Carroll, Business Manager for the Plastics and Packaging Industry at Pivot Search

Hello everyone and welcome to this guest interview. Today I present to you Harrison McVeigh Carroll who is Business Manager for the plastics and packaging industry at Pivot Search, which is a recruitment business that embraces flexibility, autonomy, trust & innovation.

In this guest interview, we have the chance to learn about the current recruitment industry, and in particular the plastics industry, as well as the value he brings to the plastic industry networks.

Enjoy the interview!

1. Tell us about yourself, your current role, and your company Pivot Search.

Business Manager at Pivot Search leading the industrial team and with 6 years experience recruiting in the plastics and packaging space globally. We are in our 4th year as a business and try to do things differently, our unique model hires only experienced, successful recruiters who get given complete flexibility in regard to where they work and as a company have gone from strength to strength focusing on developing relationships with our clients and are continuing to do so!

2. What trends are you currently seeing in the recruitment industry, and in particular the plastics industry? 

In the Plastic industry in the past 12 months I have seen a huge change in the market to being candidates lead. What I mean by this is experienced candidates with a high technical or commercial skillset in compounding, high performance plastics and additives for example are so in demand that they have more choice than ever when seeking a new role. This is leading to companies needing to be more agile, it is not enough anymore to set guidelines for a position and expect candidates to be interested due to simply the name of the company alone. Depending on particular role, candidates are not needing to relocate, take less than a 10% pay increase or settle for less in any sense.

The companies that are realising this, who are moving quickly and not leaving candidates waiting due to this shift in the market, are the ones who are winning the talent in most cases.

I also believe that the value of the plastics industry which I know your Blog is dedicated to is solidifying the industry. A lot of people I speak with are noticing the upward market trend of using the material, which at one stage in the not-so-distant past was seemingly becoming the 'enemy' to things like global warming with its links of the obvious difficulties to reuse. However, the alternates have been proven to not be all that and this goes beyond just Packaging the obvious example. The uses in construction, Aerospace and Automotive industries to name just a few prove that plastic is vital in our everyday life and when used correctly there isn't a material that can compare – the industry is certainly not going anywhere, and the growth plans and manufacturing increases from a couple of the companies I have been working with this year alone so far are a great example of that.

3. What are the reasons and rationale behind these trends?

I think we are now feeling the market boom following COVID. Just a couple years on when the market was tough certainly from a recruitment industry, companies in most part 'shut up shop' and a lot of promoting from within and being agile with the team they had. And from a candidate side it was risky to make a move and suddenly be in probation period in a new role, if something went wrong you would be the first line of fire if something goes badly from a business aspect. But now this has settled massively, and I know myself life is more or less the same as pre covid. And the market is reflecting this, but different to before it seems a much larger % of the market are looking to hire all at once and this has lead to candidates having that choice which means it is companies who are having to change their methods, or face being left behind and missing out on the best talent.

4. Based on the aforementioned information, what value can you bring to the plastic industry networks to improve the situation?

As always throughout my career I have tried to add more than just being a recruiter to my network. Whilst I will never claim to be a chemist or engineer, I try and learn the industry going the extra mile examples being the articles I have carried out and talks with people like yourself, and other KOL in the industry. In addition to this, it is important I don't lose sight of my role and what companies employ me and the team at Pivot to do. To bring top talent in the industry to them and the best way we can break this down is for starter learning the need of the company, where, who and what product experience is a nonnegotiable. Once this step is done, now we face the above-mentioned challenge of seeking the candidates. Using my network which I have built up recommendations is a big way I am able to either source candidates or be pointed in the right direction.

Screening the candidates specifically to companies need is then the leg work required, a linkedin search is no longer enough in this very competitive recruitment space. And results speak for themselves, we are working across Central Europe and North America with some of the best compounding, packaging and high-performance polymer businesses there are and building relationships that mean we are their first port of call when they face a challenge to source candidates.

5. Where can the readers find out more about you and your offers for the plastic industry?

Reaching out on LinkedIn is always the best place to start. Whether it's a candidates seeking a new role or a company looking to bring great talent, its always great to connect whether it be for now or in the future.

That was the guest interview with Harrison form Pivot Search – many thanks Harrison for our exchange on topics such as recruiting trends in the plastics industry and ideas on how to improve current challenges in the staffing of companies.

Thanks for reading!

Greetings and #findoutaboutplastics

Herwig Juster

📚My Polymer Material Selection Book - Available Here

📊 Discover your Polymer Material Selection score by taking quick test here

🎥Join my YouTube channel community 

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Pivot Search - Rethinking Plastics with Herwig Juster I Interview

Hello and welcome to this interview!

I had the pleasure to discuss with Harrison McVeigh Carroll from Pivot Search why plastics are the solution and not the problem, and show how we enable better sustainably at PlastFormance.

Thanks for watching!

Herwig 

📚My Polymer Material Selection Book - Available Here

📊 Discover your Polymer Material Selection score by taking quick test here

🎥Join my YouTube channel community 

🔎Join my inner circle (monthly newsletter)

Guest Interview: Alexander Lehner-Jettmar – Technical Sales Engineer at Biesterfeld Interowa GmbH & Co KG

Hello and welcome to this guest interview. Today I present to you Mr. Alexander Lehner-Jettmar from the international plastics trading and distribution company Biesterfeld Interowa GmbH & Co KG. We have the chance to learn about the most common injection moulding defects and how one can avoid them.

Enjoy the interview!

1. Tell us about yourself, your current role, and your way into the polymer industry

 

Hello Herwig, thank you for interviewing me and having me on your blog! I am Alexander Lehner-Jettmar and work as a technical sales engineer at Biesterfeld in Austria. I have been working in the plastic industry for 8 years and before that I completed the study of plastics and environmental technology at the TGM in Vienna.

Biesterfeld is one of the leading international distributors in the plastics industry and a partner for innovative solutions in the field of high-performance plastics, engineering thermoplastics, thermoplastic elastomers, styrene copolymers as well as standard polymers and additives. In my role as technical sales engineer, I support customers from the very first idea to the finished application and provide technical advice in the areas of material selection, tool and component design, processing and failure analysis.

2. Based on your experience, what are the most common injection moulding defects and how can one avoid them?

There are different types of injection moulding defects which I help to resolve at my customers. Among the defects I am confronted with are: too small gate designs, holding time too short, bad venting, wrong melt temperature, wrong tool temperature, and moisture in the granules.

Let me discuss a few of these issues.

Small gate design

Polymer parts are designed by using complex methods such as computer-aided design, finite element analysis and mould flow calculations. While these methods are very useful, I often see that there is less focus on the importance of the correct design of the feed system. Semi-crystalline thermoplastics undergo a volume shrinkage during the transition from the molten state to the solid state. This shrinkage, which may be as much as 14 %, depending on the type of resin, has to be compensated during hold time by the supply of additional melt into the mould cavity. That can only be done if the gate cross-section is adequate to ensure the presence of a fluid centre during the holding phase. If the gating system is too narrow, the holding pressure cannot remain effective beyond the desired holding pressure time. In that case, volume shrinkage cannot be adequately compensated, resulting in the formation of voids and sink marks.

In designing the feed system, the first point to be considered is the wall thickness of the moulded part. The diameter of the runner should never be less than the wall thickness of the moulded part.

When moulding partially crystalline, unreinforced polymers, the minimum gate thickness should be 50 % of the wall thickness of the moulded part. This would also be adequate for reinforced compounds. To minimise the risk of damage to the fibres and also bearing in mind the higher viscosity of these compounds, the gate thickness should be up to 75 % of the wall thickness of the moulded part. How a self-separating sprue system is optimally designed can be seen in Figure 1.

Figure 1:  Optimally design of a self-separating sprue system [Biesterfeld/DuPont].

If the sprue cannot go direct into the cavity, the gate length is especially crucial. The gate length should be ≤1 mm to prevent premature solidification of the sprue, so that the mould will heat up near the gate, and the holding pressure is working most effective (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Optimal design of gate if the sprue cannot be placed directly into the cavity [Biesterfeld/DuPont].

Also the gate position should be in the region of the maximum wall thickness of the moulded part to avoid voids and sink marks. This is especially essential for semi-crystalline plastics.

Bad venting

A well designed venting system is crucial for the durability and maintenance intervals of an injection mould.  Especially when processing flame-retardant materials, the durability of a tool can be significantly extended by implementing a good ventilation.

Since flame-retardant modified compounds are demanded more and more often, the subject of proper ventilation is also becoming more and more important.

Nearly always, I see insufficient venting when I look more closely at tools in the field. In most cases, the vent is not placed close enough to the cavity which prevents it from working efficiently. Also, the width of the ventilation gap, the so called "vent land" is often not adequately designed. The recommendation is that the vent land is max 0,8 mm long before the vent channel gets bigger and leads the air outside. In most cases, the vent channel is more than 3 mm away from the cavity. This leads to defects such as burn marks, mould deposits, poor part surfaces and an increased mould tool abrasion. If the venting is insufficient, component quality also suffers. Besides fire marks at the end of the flow path, also the weld line strength is affected. A well placed vent near the weld lines can double the weld line strength by allowing air to escape more easily in this section.

In essence, the following rules are applicable when designing a venting system.

• Vent land must be as short as possible (max 0,8 mm)
• Vent land must be as wide as possible
• Moving cores/inserts should also be vented (parting line or add ejector)
• Relief channels must exit to atmosphere without restriction

The following Figure 3 illustrates the recommendations.

Figure 3: Design of proper venting around injection moulding tool cavity [Biesterfeld/DuPont].

It should not only be vented at the end of the flow path. The earlier the ventilation is intended, the more air can be pressed out of the cavity prematurely to avoid higher pressure at the end of the flow path.

In many cases the injection pressure can reduce by a good venting and energy costs can be saved, which is also a nice side effect.

Holding time too short

In practice many injection moulders, working from their experience of amorphous polymers, tend to use shorter hold pressure times and longer cooling times. Unfortunately, this approach also tends to be used for semi-crystalline polymers.

Once the mould cavity has been filled, the polymer molecules start to crystallise, i.e. the molecule chains become aligned with respect to each other, resulting in higher packing density. This process starts in the outer zone and ends in the centre of the part. As mentioned the shrinkage can be up to 14% of the volume and has to be compensated during holding time. I often see that the holding pressure time is too short to compensate for this shrinkage. Parts made in this way often show excessive shrinkage, warpage, sink marks, voids and, in some cases, enormous loss of mechanical properties. In addition, there may be considerable dimensional variations too.

The required holding pressure time depends on the polymer and the additives used. The following Table 1 shows the typical required holding pressure time per mm wall thickness for different materials.

Table 1: Crystallisation time in seconds per mm wall thickness.

Wrong melt temperature

Choosing the optimal melt temperature is vital for part quality when moulding semi-crystalline engineering polymers. As a rule of thumb we can state that the margin of tolerance for semi-crystalline polymers is less than when processing amorphous resins. The moulder at his machine directly influences the properties of the end-product.

Melt temperature can be too high or too low and both are wrong. In addition, even distribution of temperature in the melt is also a factor to be kept in mind.

Temperatures that are too high degrade the polymer, that is, destroying the molecular chains. Another consequence may be that additives in the melt, such as pigments, impact modifiers, flame retardants etc., also decompose or start reacting too early. The results are poorer mechanical properties as a result of the shorter molecular chains, surface defects and a bad odour in the production.

When the temperature is too low, the polymer melt fails to achieve the required homogeneity. This drastically reduces impact resistance and leads in most cases to considerable variations in physical properties.

The data sheets for engineering polymers indicate the optimum melt temperature range for each polymer. In general, the temperature setting of the barrel heating zones alone is not reliable because, apart from the temperature rise due to the heater bands, friction from the screw rotation also generates heat. How much heat is generated this way depends on screw geometry and rpm as well as on back pressure. For the correct melt temperature, you should therefore not only rely on the machine parameters, but also measure the actual temperature of the melt.

What I also often see is that the hot runner is set hotter than the plasticising unit. Since the granulate should already be completely melted before it reaches the machine nozzle, a higher temperature in the hot runner makes no sense. The material is only thermally damaged and the risk of black specs is increased if there are dead spots in the hot runner system, which leads to quality issues.

For semi-crystalline materials the nozzle and the hot runner system should run 5-10°C lower than the last zone of the cylinder, as long as the hot runner nozzles do not freeze. If the hot runner nozzles freeze, you should have a look at the thermal decoupling of them. 

3. Let us deepen the impact of residual moisture in various polymers such as Polyamides, Polyesters (PET, PBT), Polycarbonate and others. 

Many plastics absorb moisture from the atmosphere. How much they absorb depends on the type of resin. Moisture in the granules, even if it is only surface condensation, can cause problems in parts moulded with engineering polymers. Many types of undesired effects can occur, including processing problems, poor surface on moulded parts or loss of mechanical properties. It is seldom possible to tell if moisture is present by visual inspection alone.

The following Figure 4 shows the maximum moisture absorption of various plastics at room temperature and 50% humidity.

Figure 4: Maximum moisture absorption of various plastics at room temperature and 50% humidity [Biesterfeld/DuPont].

Most engineering polymers require the moisture content of the granules to be below a certain maximum level for a proper processing.

During the injection process, moisture in the granulate can act as a processing aid, which increases the flowability. A certain amount of moisture is therefore useful. However, if the moisture content is too high, surface defects on the part and hydrolytic degradation of the polymer chains can occur, which reduces the mechanical properties and is not reversible.

The need for drying depends mainly on how sensitive the raw material is to water. Naturally, the moisture content of the material as it is delivered, the type of packaging and the period of storage are also important criteria. For example, polyamide is generally packed in bags with a barrier layer of aluminium, so that it can be used straight out of the bag. However, most processors of PA prefer to dry the resin in any case, even though drying is not necessary if the material is used within one hour. PET and PBT, on the other hand, are far more critical regarding moisture uptake and must always be dried to ensure that impact strength of the moulded parts is not affected. Another factor is that these resins pick up moisture very rapidly after drying, so that moulders should exercise special care when handling open containers of PET and PBT, when they are in transport or conveyor systems, as well as regarding their dwell time in the hopper. Thus, in unfavourable climatic circumstances PET can absorb enough moisture in 10 minutes to exceed the maximum permitted moisture content for moulding of 0,02%.

Additionally. 

Table 2 shows the typical effects of high moisture uptake in engineering polymers.

Table 2: Typical injection moulding effects of high moisture uptake in engineering polymers.

It is important to follow correct drying procedures if you want good quality mouldings. Simple hot air dryers of various types are not suitable for drying polyesters, for example, however dehumidified air dryers are acceptable. Only these can provide the required constant and adequate drying, whatever the ambient climatic conditions. In addition to maintaining the correct drying temperature, it is important to ensure that the dew point of the drying air remains lower than ≤20° C. When operating multi-container systems with different fill heights and bulk densities, it is also important to ensure that the air throughput in each container is sufficient.

4. In recent years more and more Pre- and Post Consumer Recyclates are moulded - what do we have to consider with such materials in injection moulding?

Drying regrind e.g. in the case of containers which were left standing around open requires special care. In these cases the recommended drying times are usually not enough. Fully saturated polyamide may need more than 12 hours to dry. The yellowing associated with such treatment is practically unavoidable.

To minimize the moisture pickup when using regrind, the following points should be considered.

- Always store sprues and regrind in closed containers.

- Seal containers or bags that have been partially used.

- Leave a lid on the hopper.

5. Where can the readers find out more about you (LinkedIn, etc)?

If there are any questions or if anyone would like to dig deeper into these topics, I can be reached via my email address a.lehner-jettmar@biesterfeld.com, or via my LinkedIn profile.

That was the guest interview with Alexander Lehner-Jettmar from Biesterfeld Interowa – thank you Alexander for sharing your experiences and optimization tips in polymer injection moulding!

Thanks for reading!

Greetings and #findoutaboutplastics

Herwig Juster

📚My Polymer Material Selection Book - Available Here

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Literature: 

[1] Biesterfeld/DuPont - Konstruktion und Verarbeitung von Kunststoffen: https://www.interowa.at/website/file/konstruktion_verarbeitung_broschuere_a5-richtig_print.pdf

Guest Interview: Bianca Gubi – Product Manager Circular Economy at ENGEL Austria GmbH “Plastic waste is a valuable raw material. If we manage to keep it in circulation, we can protect our environment and our climate.”

Hello everyone and welcome to this guest interview. Today I present to you Bianca Gubi who is product manager Circular Economy at Austrian injection moulding and automation manufacturer ENGEL AUSTRIA GmbH. We have the chance to deep-dive into Circular Economy moulding, learn about the newly developed two-stage moulding process for recycled materials, and what to take care in design for recycling in injection moulding.

Enjoy the interview!

Guest Interview with Bianca Gubi, working as Product Manager Circular Economy at ENGEL Austria GmbH.  

1. Tell us about yourself, your current role, and your way into the Circular Economy and recycling.

I have been working intensively on the subject of the circular economy for five years now because it's also very important to me personally. Plastic waste is a valuable raw material. If we manage to keep it in circulation, we can protect our environment and our climate. As product manager for Circular Economy at ENGEL, I'm happy to be able to make an active contribution now. That’s something I really like about my work. Here in the Circular Economy Division, we focus on sustainable technologies and are committed to ensuring that recycled plastic waste can be reprocessed to create high-quality plastic products. As an injection moulding machine manufacturer, ENGEL is part of the plastics industry and takes its responsibility very seriously. We are continuously enhancing our machines and have a range of new technologies for the circular economy in our portfolio. As a product manager, I am responsible for the design and marketing of this technology portfolio. That means I analyse what our customers need and collaborate very closely with R&D to meet those requirements. 

2. What are the differences between regular injection moulding and Circular Economy moulding? And are there things which need to be handled with special attention?

For the injection moulding machine, it's more or less irrelevant whether you process granulate, that is, virgin material, or a regranulate, that is, recycled material. This is basically good news if you're looking to establish a circular economy, because it means that it's very easy to switch to regranulate in many applications. But two things, above all, are important if you want to achieve high product quality across the board. Firstly, the plasticising unit needs to be precisely matched to the properties of the material you want to process. ENGEL has a great deal of in-house plasticising expertise and produces all the plasticising units itself; this means that we can offer our customers fantastic support here. Secondly, when you are processing recycled material, you have to take into account that the material is exposed to more pronounced batch fluctuations than you are accustomed to from virgin material. We meet this challenge with smart assistance. For example, the iQ weight control smart assistance system can automatically adjust the injection moulding parameters responsible for quality to match the current conditions for each individual cycle and ensure consistently high component quality by doing so. For standard injection moulding, it is important for the regranulate to be single grade and free of impurities. And if there are impurities, our Circular Technology engineering helps to produce good parts anyway – with our new two-stage process for example. 

3. Can you tell us about the newly developed two-stage moulding process for recycled materials? And can you point to some of the benefits of processing flakes directly compared with ready-to-use recycled pellets? 

Thanks to the new two-stage process, ENGEL makes it possible to process plastic waste as flakes in injection moulding directly after grinding. Since this eliminates pelletising, as a separate and particularly energy-intensive, process step, this innovation significantly improves energy- and cost-efficiency in plastics recycling.

To be able to process flakes in injection moulding, we have broken down plasticising and injection into two independent, but mutually tuned, process steps. In the first stage, the raw material, for example plastic flakes originating from post-consumer or post-industrial collection, is melted in a conventional plasticising screw. The melt is transferred to a second plasticising unit for injection into the cavity. Depending on the material and application, a melt filter and a degassing unit can be integrated between the plasticising and injection units; this allows customers to create high-quality products from contaminated plastic waste. 

The two-stage process is far leaner than the legacy recycling process, where plastic waste is ground, compounded, filtered and pelletised after sorting and cleaning. Thus far, the plastic has had to be melted twice for reprocessing. Pelletising the recycled material is an energy-intensive process which typically also involves logistics overhead. The need for this step is removed completely in the two-stage process. Based on calculations by ENGEL, the energy required for manufacturing the product is reduced by at least 30 percent.

4. How do you see “Design for Recycling” in injection moulding? And what are the upcoming trends in sustainability for plastics moulding?

Design for Recycling is an absolute must-have, if we are serious about the circular economy. Later recycling needs to be taken into account and planned for as early as in the development of new products. One example is thin-wall packaging produced using in-mould labelling. The trend here is towards monomaterial solutions, which allow the containers to be recycled along with the label. Another field where a great deal is happening in terms of design for recycling is lightweight construction in the mobility sector. At ENGEL, we are focusing on thermoplastic composite solutions. In the ENGEL organomelt process, thermoplastic sheets or UD-tapes are formed and functionalised in an integrated process by moulding the functional elements directly onto the preform. Again, the aim is to use materials belonging to the material group of the fibre composite prepreg matrix material for moulding on. The parts created in this way can then be fed back into the material cycle at the end of their service lives.

When it comes to trends for greater sustainability in injection moulding processing, ENGEL is taking action at various levels. Among other things, this is about innovative technologies for processing recycled materials, about process stability thanks to smart assistance systems, but also about the energy efficiency of the processing machines. 

5. Where can the readers find out more about you and the Circular Economy offers?

Just contact me and my colleagues. We are on site at very many trade fairs worldwide and can be contacted at any time by phone, email or on LinkedIn. Our website also gives people great overview of our commitment to sustainability at ENGEL: ▷ Circular Economy & Plastics Recycling - ENGEL (engelglobal.com). We also have our own blog there to keep our readers up to date at all times.

That was the guest interview with Bianca Gubi from ENGEL AUSTRIA GmbH – thank you Bianca and the whole team for sharing such interesting insights of the Circular Economy moulding!

Thanks for reading!

Greetings and #findoutaboutplastics

Herwig Juster

📚My Polymer Material Selection Book - Available Here

📊 Discover your Polymer Material Selection score by taking quick test here

🎥Join my YouTube channel community 

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Guest Interview: Paolo Negri – Founder and Owner of Isotattica “Stop turning the knobs and apply hands-on rheology to troubleshoot and design your materials and equipment!”

Hello and welcome to this guest interview. Today I present to you Mr. Paolo Negri founder and owner of Isotattica. We have the chance to learn about analysis on polymer flow behaviour with innovative methods.

Enjoy the interview!

Tell us about yourself, your current role, and about Isotattica.

Thank you for having me on your blog. I am Paolo Negri founder and owner of Isotattica.

I have always worked in the fantastic world of polymers and I am driven by the passion of offering innovative service with multidisciplinary approach.

My Vision is to become a valuable reference for industrial rheology with innovative methods to be used with concrete problem-solving purpose.

With over 25 + years of transversal activities in the field of polymers, extrusion, rheometry, we provide technical support to solve problems that arise during processing phase of the materials, with strong focus on rheology as methodology and “tool” to elucidate and optimize processes and equipment.

What is the rheological investigation method and device you developed and what is the practical usage of it?

Rheology is concerned with measuring the stress in a material and relating it to its deformation in the molten flow of the material.

Rheology is still little known in the industrial field because it is considered complex, of impractical implementation and does not bring practical results, vice versa I want to propose a different way of utilization of it: if findings are expressed in an understandable reading and applied in a pragmatic and concrete way to industrial processes, rheology becomes a valid approach to understand and resolve critical issues.

Understanding the flow properties of polymers through tests directly on extrusion-connected equipment can help optimize products and process conditions, thus saving costs and minimizing potential waste.

My motto is: Stop turning the knobs and apply hands-on rheology to troubleshoot and design your materials and equipment!

Isotattica offers analysis on flow behaviour with innovative methods: flow visualization and rheometric measurement through flow-induce birefringence and elongational experiments made with a filament stretching apparatus.

The first approach is innovative (the optical cell is patent pending) and allows flow visualization and mapping of stresses and deformation inside the geometry of flow channels. Thanks to the so called “optical rule” is it possible to sequence and calculate stresses and finally to determine viscosity in the melt stream where elongational specifically takes place.

The second approach, filament-stretching-method, is mainly used as complementary test and allows assessment of the melt quality in extensional experiments.

I invite readers to learn more on my website www.isotattica.com.

What are some potential applications?

The proposed methods of analysis are very sensitive: it is possible to replicate industrial process condition and capture the details that explain the difference in extrudability, for example due to the smallest of batch fluctuation;

In addition, it is possible to understand the contribution of elongational deformation in “complex flow” and correlate structure-property-processing-performance.

Die designers benefit from this because they can finally size the channels paths and tooling’s based on the specific and well understood flow responses of the materials and not based on generic data.

Where can the readers find out more about you and the services of Isotattica?

Whatever you would like to know about Isotattica including practical examples of utilization of these analysis, you can visit our website www.isotattica.com or simply mail or call me asking to provide specific details and offers.

With the pandemic continuing, we are more enhancing on in-direct communication via video conferences.

Who do you turn to?

We provide concrete and pragmatic support:

- To those who need to design new materials / compounds and perform rheometric characterizations for mapping and quantifying flow response, with emphasis in the extensional field in the various channel’s geometries or in downstream operation like blowing, cast film, profile extrusions, strand palettization, injection molding and many others

- To those who need to design and manufacture process equipment and layouts (co-extrusion heads / dies, extruders, downstream equipment) for specific industrial applications where knowledge of the shear characteristics but above all in elongation are vital.

- Who must study the extrusion process and its efficiency based on the rheological response of the materials and their stability when changing extrusion settings.

- To producers and converter of materials, or to deepen the intimate rheological aspects that cannot be captured with conventional approaches and that can make the difference.

- To those who need material consultation, for proper material selection, design review, feasibility study.

- To those who want to acquire mastery in dealing with and solving problems and improve business by distinguishing themselves from competitors.

That was the guest interview with Paolo Negri from Isotattica – thank you Paolo for the interesting insights into the polymer rheology world!

Thanks for reading!

Greetings and #findoutaboutplastics

Herwig Juster

#rheology #guestinterview #Isotattica

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