How To Stop Profile Warpage

Faster! Every company wants to run more rapidly to get more product from the same production
range and from the same sum of labor. Plastic profile extrusion companies are no exception. You can
easily speed up the extruder to press more pounds or even to buy a larger extruder to obtain
additional output. On the other hand, when extruding plastic material profiles, the output is usually
managed by the cooling of the profile and the capability to contain the part in the right shape while
it is being cooled. It really is hard more than enough to cool simple designs like spherical pipe and
tubing more quickly however the difficulty increases when the complexity of the account increases.
Window profiles and other complex parts are very difficult to cool uniformly, and if the parts do not
cool warpage and bow is the result uniformly.
Like the majority of materials, plastics shrink because the temperature of the plastic decreases, but
they shrink greater than other materials usually. Plastics shrink at one rate when they are in the
sturdy (frozen) state, however they shrink much more when they are soft or in the molten state still.
The nagging problem for the profile extruder is controlling this shrinkage when cooling the popular
plastic, coming out of the extruder, completely down to room temperature. Lets take the simplest
exemplory case of a set sheet where one side cools faster than the other. When soft both plastic
extrusion equipment sides will be shrinking at the same rate even now. Even if one side is cooling
more quickly and shrinking quicker the other side is still pliable plenty of to come with the different
shrinking side. Nevertheless, once one side cools at night crystalline temp or its glass transition
temperature, two things happen. First, that material stiffens and is no longer pliable enough to
check out the other side and the charge of shrinkage goes down significantly. It is as if the stiffened
side is no shrinking as the other pliable aspect continues to shrink longer. Therefore, because the
pliable area remains to shrink it is pulling on the stiffened part and producing a bow in the direction
of the medial side that cooled previous. In this case in point, and in other basic profiles, the right
part will bow in direction of the material that cooled last. In more complex profiles the parts may
twist, distort, or warp in every types of fashions depending on which sections of the portion cooled
last. Well cover more on this later.
Furthermore nagging problem is the fact that plastics are good thermal insulators, meaning that
they dont transfer heat very fast. Which makes it difficult to pull all of the heat out from the part to
begin with, let alone doing it uniformly. Thermal conductivity is a way of measuring how fast
resources transfer heat. Steel includes a thermal conductivity of 43 while Aluminums higher
heating transfer is 250 & most plastics are way down at values between 0.1 and 0.3.
TYPES OF COOLING Weather COOLING
Considering these issues with cooling profiles it should not be astonishing that historically account
extruders often used air to cool parts.
Air racks are straight forward tables or perhaps frames with plates / tutorials and fixtures that
contain the part in form as it has been pulled slowly across the table. Fans are generally used to
improve overall cooling while compressed atmosphere jets happen to be added where certain
additional cooling is required. Metal fingers, cables, and jigs attached to the desk with clamps or
vise grips are used to push the part into shape as it cools very slowly.
Air is quite inefficient, meaning SLOW, which in cases like this is good because slow provides
operator time to make modifications and get the component perfectly without warping or perhaps

other distortion. Complex profiles or parts with diverse wall thicknesses on distinctive sections of
the part might need customized cooling. The operator can immediate even more cooling to where he
demands it with compressed air flow nozzles or retard cooling in other areas by insulating a section
to retain it from cooling as well fast. Since thicker sections cool more slowly than thin sections,
specific actions must be employed in order to avoid warp. The operator should direct significantly
more cooling on thicker sections to encourage them to fascinating to the same heat range as well as
thinner sections on the same profile. Likewise, in the U-channel or simply an internal corner will
interesting slower than an outside corner and can require even more directed cooling. Output costs
are limited to between 100 - 250 lb./hr. using air since it is so slow.
Even today, some may nonetheless use air cooling when:
Profiles have become complex
Using materials with completely different thermal conductivities
Size of production runs do not justify more expensive tooling
SUBMERSION WATER COOLING
When higher output rates are required, cooling with water can be used then. There are many
methods to run a component through water depending on many variables.
Submersion Tanks
For very simple shapes the part can be extruded over the top of a long water tank and be pushed
down under the drinking water by rollers or sizing plates. This can only be utilized for parts where it
doesnt matter that the bottom of the part hits the water initial (and is cooled initial) while the best
comes down into the water an instant later.
Vacuum Tanks
Extruding larger or more complex shapes directly into the water container is a good idea that runs
into the simple problem of gravity pulling normal water out of the tank through the hole that the
component needs to go through into the tank. Even small gaps between the sides of the component
and the sides of the entrance plate will allow water to leak out. This issue is usually solved by
applying vacuum to the entire inside of the tank to carry the water in. Needless to say, this requires
a special tank that is strong enough never to collapse from the differential pressure of vacuum on
the inside and air pressure on the beyond the tank.
Other Options
Another option would be to make a little vacuum sleeve around the entrance to suck off any water
trying to flow through the gap between component and entrance plate. Recently, profile extruders
will place a dried out vacuum calibrator in front of the water tank to perform the same thing. This
vacuum calibrator can be as short as 3 for less vital profiles or provided that 10 toes for parts that
have to get hardened to extremely precise dimensions before going into the water container for
more cooling. Dry out vacuum calibration is not as efficient as drinking water cooling nonetheless it
is the value that must be paid when tighter control of the dimensions is required.
Water Temperature Choices

Its fairly obvious that vacuum tanks are actually closed totally. Even with an open water container
it is extremely difficult, if not unattainable, to get into the tank to put fingers and jigs to press the
part into condition as is performed on an air flow rack. Additionally it is difficult to immediate
cooling water or even to insulate sections of the portion from cooling. However, you'll be able to
decrease the efficiency of cooling (i.e. slow it straight down) to mimic the extra uniform cooling
conceivable with an air flow rack by heating the drinking water. This is done with parts which have a
strong inclination to warp and especially with higher heat range engineering elements. In cases like
this a temperature control unit is required to control the temperatures of the water at a arranged
value. The higher the water temperature may be the slower the cooling and therefore the much
easier it is to attain uniform cooling. Controlled temp water between 80 F and 130 F is often
used in the original tank until colder water may be used to comprehensive the cooling. Of course,
with the desire to have velocity, the colder the water the more rapidly the cooling, consequently
most profile extruders shall use chilled water at temperatures between 50 F and 55 F whenever
they can.
Water Flow Characteristics
Even nevertheless immersing the entire profile in water provides faster and better cooling it may not
be the best cooling method. Unless the water is being agitated to provide turbulent flow around the
proper part, then your layer of water up coming to the component will warmth up and that hot water
next to the component will decelerate the cooling. The same phenomena may occur on simple shapes
like round pipes or tubing to cause uneven cooling and bowing. Everybody knows that warmth rises
and warm water is undoubtedly no exception. This is great for the water up coming to the vertical
floors of a part going right through the water. The water is certainly heated by the component and
this warm water will rise along the part drawing cool water behind it to help expand cool the spend
the a continuous renewing of cool water against the portion. However, warm water on the bottom
exterior cannot rise as because the part is in the way easily. It does slowly progress and draw cool
water behind it but not as much efficiently than what is going on on the sides. The most notable is
more of a difficulty because even though the heated water isn't obstructed from moving up and from
the part, the only real water that is drawn in to replace it's the heated water upgrading the sides of
the portion. The top is not cooled as fast and pipes or other areas will generally bow up (bend
upwards). Sizing plates in the tank help break up this flow but only allow cool water onto the most
notable of the part immediately after the sizing plate. Turbulent circulation of water on the tank
supports this problem.
SPRAY COOLING
Spray cooling is an improvement over immersion cooling and another real way to reply the cooling
challenge. Spray nozzles will be evenly distributed around the component and down the tank to
ensure a regular replenishment of temperatures controlled water to the surface of the part. This
spray likewise ensures even more uniform cooling by spraying water equally into U-channels and
inside corners compared to outdoors corners and straight walls. Parts with a simple cross section
could be sprayed with chilled water and operate at superior rates of production. The task of uneven
wall thicknesses still needs to be addressed separately. If spraying cold water alone is not sufficient
to achieve the uniform cooling that is needed to avoid warping, the drinking water can be
temperatures controlled to decelerate the cooling and decrease or eliminate warping. Normal water
is required in a sufficient volume to generate the turbulent flow in the tank that's needed to break
up the insulating coating of warm water.
Some people claim that spray cooling is significantly much better than immersion cooling as a result
of evaporative cooling effect. This is where the drinking water sprayed onto the hot part is quickly

considered steam and evaporates having off a lot more heat than the drinking water can bring off
when immersed. While this impact is real, it really is only true once the area of the plastic is above
about 250 F. This only happens in the 1st seconds and even tenths of secs of the component
entering the cooling tank. With the high effectiveness of cooling of the drinking water and more
importantly the low conduction of warmth from the plastic material to the surface, the top
temperature drops below 250 F. and stays there so that forget about evaporative cooling occurs.
Still, the continuous replenishment of cold water to the surface area is an improvement in the
proficiency of the drinking water cooling, with the added advantage of not really requiring vacuum
to carry the water in the container. Spray cooling possesses even more uniform distribution of
cooling drinking water over the surface and continuous replenishment of cool water on the surface
with the added good thing about using lower flow rates of drinking water.
CONCLUSION
So, the plastic portion will tell you when it is not getting cooled uniformly by bowing, warping, or
distorting. With simple shapes the proper part will bow in direction of the wall or section that cooled
last. In more complex shapes the contortions will not be as convenient to find out with as many as 6
to 10 different wall sections cooling at unique rates. Directing extra cooling to sections that
naturally would great slower because they're: thicker, inside corners, otherwise shielded from
circulating or spray water will result in control of warpage. Now the trick is to velocity it up and
solve the nagging problem all over again.