Recycling devices for producing additive manufacturing filament from received materials including objects to be recycled, discarded objects, obsolete objects, and the like. A recycling device may include a material processing system an extrusion mechanism and a spooling assembly. The material processing system receives material, reduces the size of the received material via a material size reducer and actively pushes the material through at least a portion of the device. The extrusion mechanism produces filament from the material and the spooling assembly loads the filament onto a spool for later use. The spooling assembly may include detachable elements configured to interface with and supply filament to an additive manufacturing device. Depending on configuration, recycling devices may create filament from plastic, metal, in-situ material, or a combination thereof.

A modular plastic pipe formation apparatus to extrude plastic pipe is disclosed and includes a plurality of modules each having a transportable container and at least one component of the pipe formation apparatus located therein. The plurality of modules are aligned in a predetermined manner during formation of plastic pipe with the components aligned for pipe extrusion. The apparatus may also include a closed circuit fluid cooling system to provide cooling fluid to some of modules to cool the pipe being formed, the cooling circuit may flows in a counter direction to the direction of pipe forming in the pipe formation apparatus.

An improved backsheet used in the construction of solar panels is disclosed. A method of manufacturing the backsheet and solar panel comprising the backsheet, including coextrusion processes are also disclosed. Additionally, a photovoltaic solar panel module comprising the backsheet of the invention is disclosed. The backsheet of the instant invention may comprise an exterior layer having inner and outer surfaces, a middle layer, having inner and outer surfaces, and an interior layer having inner and outer surfaces. In one embodiment of the invention, the outer surface of the middle layer may be adjoined to the inner surface of the exterior layer, and the inner surface of the middle layer may be adjoined to the outer surface of the interior layer. The exterior layer, middle layer, and interior layer may be adjoined via a co-extrusion process, thereby eliminating the need for the use of adhesives for bonding the layers of the backsheet together. The backsheet of the invention improves upon the efficiency, strength, weather resistance, cost, and useful life of the solar panels in which the backsheet is incorporated.

A method of making polymeric composite particles from polymeric scrap material, virgin polymeric material, or mixtures thereof and glass particles by subjecting a mixture of the polymeric particles and glass particles to a solid state shear pulverization and in-situ polymer compatibilization.

A process for drying polymeric granular material (2) comprises the steps of: introducing into said drying hopper (10) a process gas having a predefined flow rate so as to heat and dry the polymeric granular material, discharging a portion of the heated polymeric granular material into a transformation unit (100) for the polymeric material; loading an amount of fresh polymeric granular material (2a) into the drying hopper. The process gas flow rate is regulated by measuring the inlet temperature of the fresh polymeric granular material (2a) and comparing it with a predefined inlet temperature of the fresh polymeric granular material, on the basis of which the predefined process gas flow rate has been calculated. If the measured inlet temperature is different from the predefined inlet temperature, the flow rate of the process gas is regulated on the basis of the measured inlet temperature.

A process for producing tyres including building a green tyre having two bead structures. Each bead structure includes a bead filler. The bead filler or another rigid component of the green tyre includes a final elastomeric compound produced by the following: feeding elastomeric polymer and reinforcement filler to a first batch mixing device; mixing and dispersing the reinforcement filler in the elastomeric polymer and unloading the obtained elastomeric compound; feeding the obtained elastomeric compound, along with at least 5 phr of reinforcement resin, to a continuous mixing device of intermeshing and co-rotating twin-screw or multi-screw type or of planetary type; mixing the reinforcement resin in the elastomeric compound and unloading the obtained elastomeric compound; and feeding the obtained elastomeric compound along with the components capable of facilitating the cross-linking to a second batch mixing device and mixing to obtain the final elastomeric compound. The first and second batch mixing device have two counterrotating rotors.

A method of making polymeric composite particles from polymeric scrap material, virgin polymeric material, or mixtures thereof and glass particles by subjecting a mixture of the polymeric particles and glass particles to a solid state shear pulverization and in-situ polymer compatibilization.

A method of forming a fiber-reinforced molding compound. The method includes establishing a melt stream of a source material including a first polymeric material having a first melt temperature in an extruder and dosing a composite material into the melt stream. The composite material includes pre-impregnated reinforcing fibers comprising reinforcing filaments and a second polymeric material having a second melt temperature greater than the first melt temperature. The composite material has at least 30% of the reinforcing filaments protected by the polymeric material such that the polymeric material surrounds each filament completely forming a barrier between it and an adjacent filament in the at least 30% of the filaments. The temperature of the melt stream at dosing is below the second melt temperature. The method includes forming a molding compound from the source and composite materials. The method includes dispensing the molding compound to produce a part.

The invention relates to a method for changing the material from a feed mixture to a subsequent mixture in a feed device of an extruder, comprising the following steps: detecting a change request for changing the material, emptying a mixing area of a mixing device of the feed device, identifying the completion of the emptying of the mixing area, and filling the mixing area of the mixing device with the subsequent mixture after the completion of the emptying has been identified.

A method for rapid manufacturing of three dimensional discontinuous fiber preforms is provided. The method includes the deposition of a polymeric material containing fibers on a surface to form a tailored charge for compression molding. The reinforced polymeric material may be a thermoplastic or a reactive polymer with viscosity low enough to allow flow through an orifice during deposition, yet high enough zero shear viscosity to retain the approximate shape of the deposited charge. The material can be deposited in a predetermined pattern to induce the desired mechanical properties through alignment of the fibers. This deposition can be performed in a single layer or in multiple layers. The alignment is achieved passively by shear alignment of the fibers or actively through fiber orientation control or mixing. The fibers can be of the desired material, length, and morphology, including short and long filaments.