A system for manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament that is adapted for providing a polymer melt and dividing the polymer melt into a plurality of streams (e.g., at least six or eight streams) to increase a surface area of the polymer melt. The plurality of streams is then exposed to a pressure that is below approximately 5 millibars. The streams are then recombined into a single polymer stream and formed into bulked continuous carpet filament. In various embodiments, an extruder, such as a multi-screw extruder, is used to divide the polymer melt into the plurality of streams.

A method for manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament, the method comprising: (1) reducing a chamber pressure within a chamber to below about 5 millibars; (2) after reducing the chamber pressure to below about 5 millibars, providing a polymer melt to the chamber; (3) separating the polymer melt into at least eight streams; (4) while the at least eight streams of the polymer melt are within the chamber, exposing the at least eight streams of the polymer melt to the chamber pressure of below about 5 millibars; (5) after exposing the at least eight streams of the polymer melt to the chamber pressure of below about 5 millibars, recombining the at least eight streams into a single polymer stream; and (6) forming polymer from the single polymer stream into bulked continuous carpet filament.

A method of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament that includes providing a polymer melt and separating the polymer melt from the extruder into at least eight streams. The multiple streams are exposed to a chamber pressure within a chamber that is below approximately 25 millibars, or another predetermined pressure. The streams are recombined into a single polymer stream. Polymer from the polymer stream is then formed into bulked continuous carpet filament.

The present invention relates to a process for the production of a reinforced polyamide (rP) in an extruder. In this process, a first mixture (M1), a second mixture (M2) and a third mixture (M3) are added into the extruder, and subsequently at least one carbon material is added to obtain a carbon containing polymerizable mixture (cpM) in the extruder. This carbon containing polymerizable mixture (cpM) is polymerized and subsequently devolatilized to obtain the reinforced polyamide (rP). Furthermore, the present invention relates to the reinforced polyamide (rP) obtainable by the inventive process.

A molding material comprising a pellet group of at least 20 saponified ethylene-vinyl ester-based copolymer pellets, wherein at least 95% of the pellets have a surface that is substantially a single closed surface, and when a maximum outer diameter of a pellet is taken as a long diameter and a minimum diameter in a cross section having the greatest area among the cross sections perpendicular to the long diameter is taken as a short diameter, the average value of the long diameter/short diameter ratio of at least 20 pellets taken from the pellet group is 1.6 or less and the standard deviation of the long diameter/short diameter ratio of the at least 20 pellets is 0.13 or less.

A composite and method for producing the composite by incorporating wood or wood pulp fibres with a suitable thermoplastic polymer and coupling agent are described. Homogeneous, void-free transparent/translucent thermoplastic materials in the form of pellets, films or three-dimensional moldable products are produced. The wood pulp fibres can be discrete natural fibres, and flexible assemblies of nano to micro elements, e.g., assemblies of aggregated carbon nanotubes. It is also possible to use our vacuum-assisted co-extrusion process to produce hybrid composites comprising the wood pulp fibre and a further rigid fibre, like glass or carbon fibres, and a flexible fibre or fibrillar network, like cellulose fibres or cellulose filaments. The thermoplastic resin can be, but not limited to, polyolefins, like polypropylene or polyethylene, or polyesters, like polylactic acid, or co-polymers, like acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene terpolymer.

A method of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament which, in various embodiments, comprises: (A) grinding recycled PET bottles into a group of flakes; (B) washing the flakes; (C) identifying and removing impurities, including impure flakes, from the group of flakes; (D) passing the group of flakes through an expanded surface area extruder while maintaining a pressure within the expanded surface area extruder below about 25 millibars; (E) passing the resulting polymer melt through at least one filter having a micron rating of less than about 50 microns; and (F) forming the recycled polymer into bulked continuous carpet filament that consists essentially of recycled PET.

A method of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament that includes providing a polymer melt and separating the polymer melt from the extruder into at least eight streams. The multiple streams are exposed to a chamber pressure within a chamber that is below approximately 5 millibars. The streams are recombined into a single polymer stream and formed into bulked continuous carpet filament.

A method of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament which, in various embodiments, comprises: (A) grinding recycled PET bottles into a group of flakes; (B) washing the flakes; (C) identifying and removing impurities, including impure flakes, from the group of flakes; (D) passing the flakes through a PET crystallizer; (E) passing the group of flakes through an MRS extruder while maintaining the pressure within the MRS portion of the MRS extruder below about 18 millibars; (F) passing the resulting polymer melt through at least one filter having a micron rating of less than about 50 microns; and (G) forming the recycled polymer into bulked continuous carpet filament that consists essentially of recycled PET.

A method of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament which, in various embodiments, comprises: (A) grinding recycled PET bottles into a group of flakes; (B) washing the flakes; (C) identifying and removing impurities, including impure flakes, from the group of flakes; (D) passing the flakes through a PET crystallizer; (E) passing the group of flakes through an MRS extruder while maintaining the pressure within the MRS portion of the MRS extruder below about 18 millibars; (F) passing the resulting polymer melt through at least one filter having a micron rating of less than about 50 microns; and (G) forming the recycled polymer into bulked continuous carpet filament that consists essentially of recycled PET.