Systems and methods for rapid measurement of the chemical and structural properties of plastic articles are provided. The systems and methods involve measuring both mechanical deformation of the plastic article and x-ray fluorescence of the plastic article in order to determine changes in composition as a result of contamination and/or issues associated with plastic article manufacturing lines. The systems and methods can be performed in minutes, compared to hours or days for typical testing methods.

The invention relates to a method for the online monitoring of film quality during a production process for a plastic film, in particular a blown film or a continuously cast film, in which method the film material (1) is fed out of an outlet device (40) that is designed as a melt lug (4) by a transport device (10). The film material (1) cools on or in front of the transport device (10) and the film material (1) solidifies in front of or on the transport device (10).

An apparatus, a system, and a method for improvements in fused filament fabrication (FFF). Characteristics of a filament may be measured during production of the filament and the characteristics stored in a memory for retrieval by a 3D printer. The 3D printer adjusts print settings as necessary based on the measured characteristics, thereby resulting in better print quality.

A method comprises the steps of continuously measuring, proximal a tube extrusion die, a diameter of tubing extruded by the die, to produce a plurality of die-measurement or layflat samples; and continuously measuring, downstream of the tube extrusion die and proximal an accumulation point of flattened tubing, a width of the flattened tubing, to produce a plurality of flat-width samples. A slope value is calculated over a selected interval of the layflat samples and the flat-width samples to determine the stability of the diameter of the tubing and the width of the flattened tubing. A y-intercept value is calculated over the selected interval of the layflat samples and the flat-width samples to determine a forecast trend of the diameter of the tubing and the width of the flattened tubing. When the slope values, y-intercept values, and variances are within selected parameters indicative of a stable operation of the tube extrusion die and the accumulation of flattened tubing, the tube extrusion die is calibrated to produce a selected width of flattened tubing.

There is provided with a thermal decomposition treatment apparatus capable of thermally decomposing a resin under an appropriate thermal decomposition condition. The thermal decomposition treatment apparatus comprises: a thermal decomposition treatment unit configured to thermally decompose a recycled material containing a resin; a detection unit configured to detect an impurity in the recycled material to be introduced into the thermal decomposition treatment unit; and a determination unit configured to determine a condition related to an introduction amount of a virgin material of the resin to be introduced, together with the recycled material, into the thermal decomposition treatment unit, based on a detection result of the detection unit.

The invention relates to a system (10) for transporting a film tube (2) in a blown film line (1) along a transport direction, having a guiding unit (51) for guiding the film tube (2), a bottleneck (13.1) at which a width (2.3) of the film tube (2) can be reduced, a severing apparatus (20) having at least one severing element (21) for severing the film tube (2), wherein the guiding unit (51) is arranged downstream of the bottleneck (13.1) in the transport direction of the film tube (2). The invention furthermore relates to a blown film line (1) and to a method (100) for producing a film.

In a resin-film manufacturing apparatus of an embodiment, when a lip gap control is started, a difference between a state of a target heat bolt (THB) at a start of current control and a state of each of all the heat bolts at a start of last control is obtained, when the difference between the states of THB at the starts of the current and last control is a smallest one, a learning result of THB is set as an initial value of a control condition for THB, and when the difference between the states of THB is not the smallest one, either one of a learning result of the heat bolt of which the difference between the states is smaller than the difference between the states of THB and the learning result of THB is set as the initial value of the control condition for THB.

An apparatus, a system, and a method for improvements in fused filament fabrication (FFF). Characteristics of a filament may be measured during production of the filament and the characteristics stored in a memory for retrieval by a 3D printer. The 3D printer adjusts print settings as necessary based on the measured characteristics, thereby resulting in better print quality.

The invention relates to a method for switching the production of a flat film machine (100) from a feed product (EP) to a follow-on product (FP), comprising the following steps: recognizing a switching request for a switch from the feed product (EP) to the follow-on product (FP), determining a current feed control value (ES) of at least one control variable (SG) of the flat film machine (100) for the feed product (EP), determining a follow-on control value (FS) of the same at least one control variable (SG) for the follow-on product (FP), generating a control signal (SS) for a defined variation of the at least one control variable (SG) of the flat film machine (100) from the feed control value (ES) to the follow-on control value (FS).

A method of recycling post-consumer plastic waste into mono filament for use in fused filament fabrication, injection molding, or other plastic manufacturing processes. Contaminated curbside plastic waste is sorted and granulated to uniform sized flakes. The plastic regrind is cleaned in a closed-loop wash cycle and dried at 160° F. and −70 dew point to reduce the moisture content to less than 0.03%. The effluent water is purified to be reused in the system. The flake plastic is extruded to a molten state and passes through additional melt filtration. A laser micrometer measures extrudate metrics like diameter and ovality to dynamically control feed and flow rates of the extruder to maintain diameter uniformity within 0.018 mm of target diameter.