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.

Provided are a flexible tube for an endoscope, the flexible tube having a flexible tube base containing metal as a constituent material, a resin cover layer that covers an outer periphery of the flexible tube base, and a primer layer that includes a specific silane coupling agent and that is disposed between the flexible tube base and the resin cover layer, in which the resin cover layer includes at least one compound selected from the group consisting of polyamides, polyesters, polyurethanes, and polyolefins at least on a side of the resin cover layer in contact with the primer layer, an endoscopic medical device including the flexible tube for an endoscope, a method for producing the flexible tube for an endoscope, and a method for producing the endoscopic medical device.

A system and method for reducing draw resonance of a plastic material in molten state, so-called melt, leaving an extrusion group of a plant for the production of plastic film, includes at least one thermostatically-controlled cylinder, having an embracement angle of the melt on the cylinder that is adjustable on the basis of the process rate, i.e., the linear movement speed of the plastic film, and/or on the basis of the temperature measured in the proximity of or in correspondence with the clamping area of the melt in a thermoforming, calibration and cooling group included in the plant and positioned downstream of the system.

Described is a process and system for direct printing of a decorative pattern onto an extruded PVC slat. The process includes providing a hot extruded PVC slat; directly contacting a surface of the hot extruded PVC slat with a direct printing cylinder as the slat is moved in a downstream direction, where the cylinder has a pattern with a cell structure that receives ink and rotates to directly apply the ink in the form of the pattern onto the surface of the hot extruded PVC slat. The process also includes controlling a temperature of the direct printing cylinder to inhibit drying of the ink while present on the direct printing cylinder.

A method and apparatus for manufacturing a duct bank comprising the steps of loading a frame with a series of templates, positioning the frame adjacent a pipe extruder, aligning a set of a plurality of holes with a die of the pipe extruder, extruding a pipe of a first length into the set of holes, repeating the steps of aligning and extruding for each set of holes, thereby forming the duct bank, banding the duct bank, and removing the duct bank from the frame.

A system and method for reducing draw resonance of plastic material in the molten state, so-called melt, leaving an extrusion group of a plant for the production of plastic film, includes at least one thermostatically-controlled cylinder, having an embracement angle, of the melt on the cylinder, adjustable on the basis of the process rate, i.e. the linear movement speed of the plastic film, and/or on the basis of the temperature measured in the proximity of or in correspondence with the clamping area of the melt in a thermoforming, calibration and cooling group included in the plant and positioned downstream of the system.

Method and apparatus for pulling polymeric material from an extrusion die as a tubular extrusion uses a pair of mutually-facing endless belts for pulling the extrusion from the extrusion die by frictional contact with the extrusion, the belts being spaced apart from one another for frictional driving passage of the tubular extrusion therebetween, spacing of the belts being continuously adjusted in response to signal from a gauge continuously measuring outer diameter of the tubular extrusion upstream of the belts.

A method and apparatus for manufacturing a duct bank comprising the steps of loading a frame with a series of templates, positioning the frame adjacent a pipe extruder, aligning a set of a plurality of holes with a die of the pipe extruder, extruding a pipe of a first length into the set of holes, repeating the steps of aligning and extruding for each set of holes, thereby forming the duct bank, banding the duct bank, and removing the duct bank from the frame.

A system for executing a rod member extrusion-molding method of the present invention has an extrusion-molding machine of a rod member, a transfer conveyor, a delivery line of the rod member between the extrusion-molding machine and the transfer conveyor, a measurement position defined on the delivery line and dividing the delivery line into an upstream section and a downstream section, a measurement device measuring an outer diameter of the rod member in the measurement position, a first roller conveyor forming a part of the section at least directly upstream of the measurement position, a second roller conveyor forming the downstream section, and a control device performing feedback control of a transfer speed of the transfer conveyor based on the outer diameter obtained in the measurement device.

Disclosed herein is a method and apparatus for automatic extrudate loading and alignment. An extrudate handling system includes a head end assembly and an imaging device (which may be part of the head end assembly). The imaging device is configured to image an end face of an extrudate, and generate, during translation of the extrudate, an imaging output signal indicative of a rotational position of the end face of the extrudate. The head end assembly includes a rotational effector to rotate the extrudate during translation thereof and a fixed effector rotationally fixed relative to a track. The extrudate handling system is able to determine the rotational position of the web angle of the extrudate and precisely adjust the rotational position while linearly translating the extrudate along the track. The extrudate handling system provides greater accuracy, reduced costs, and improved results.