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 MRS extruder while maintaining the pressure within the MRS portion of the MRS extruder below about 1.5 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 screw machine includes an inductive heating device for processing of material to be processed. The inductive heating device is used to heat the material in a heating zone. In the heating zone, at least one housing portion is made of an electromagnetically transparent material at least partly, the material being non-magnetic and electrically non-conductive, whereas at least one treatment element shaft is made of an electrically conductive material at least partly. The inductive heating device includes at least one coil formed integrally with a component of the at least one housing portion, in particular in such a way as to form a hybrid component. During the processing of the material, the inductive heating device generates an alternating magnetic field that produces eddy current losses in the at least one treatment element shaft, the eddy current losses leading to a temperature increase of the at least one treatment element shaft.

An apparatus (1) for optical inspection of a mass of polymeric material (2) passing through an extruder (3) having a hollow extrusion cylinder (4) extending elongately in a longitudinal direction comprises an optical sensor (8) which can be operatively coupled to the extrusion cylinder (4) and having an infrared light emitter (8a) and a receiver (8b) configured to measure a measurement parameter representing an optical property of the polymeric material (2) inside the extrusion cylinder (4) and is characterized in that it comprises a plurality of the optical sensors (8) which can be operatively coupled to the extrusion cylinder (4) in a plurality of measurement sites located in succession and spaced from each other along the longitudinal direction and a processor (9) programmed to acquire a plurality of measurement signals containing the measurement parameters measured by the corresponding optical sensors (8) and programmed to process the plurality of measurement signals in order to calculate a corresponding plurality of values of a control parameter indicating a physical state of the polymeric material (2) as a function of a longitudinal position.

A high melt strength resin composition includes at least a) non-functionalized polypropylene, b) at least one acrylate such as zinc diacrylate, calcium diacrylate or aluminum triacrylate in a total amount of from 0.1 to 5% by weight based on the weight of non-functionalized polypropylene, and c) at least one acid neutralizer in a total amount of from 0.005 to 5% by weight based on the total weight of the at least one acrylate. The resin composition is compounded at a processing temperature between 185° C. and 260° C. to obtain the high melt strength polypropylene.

A method of extruding filament comprises the steps of cutting a bulk source material into pieces having size S.sub.1, performing a first extrusion pass comprising the steps of melting the pieces in an extruding device at a temperature T.sub.1 and extruding a first filament at an extrusion speed V.sub.1, and performing at least one additional extrusion pass k comprising the steps of cutting the first filament into pieces having size S.sub.k, melting the pieces in an extruding device at temperature T.sub.k, and extruding a final filament at an extrusion speed V.sub.k. A system for extruding filament is also described.

An installation for producing a polymer melt for a porous film, in particular for a membrane film, comprises a planetary roller extruder. Said extruder is used to produce a flowable polymer melt from thermoplastics. The planetary roller extruder has a filling opening and a discharge side for delivering the polymer melt. A melt pump is further provided. The discharge side of the planetary roller extruder is connected to a downstream inlet side of the melt pump for further conveying the polymer melt. The connection is in the form of a pressure channel shielded from the ambient atmosphere or a pressure line shielded from the ambient atmosphere. The planetary roller extruder and the melt pump are designed and/or can be driven in such a manner that the polymer melt is applied or can be transferred under pressure at the melt pump on the inlet side.

A process for fabricating a powder coating composition having a desired color from solid input filaments. A plurality of solid input filaments is fed to a mixer in accordance with an input formulation for a color. The input filaments are liquefied at the mixer, and the liquefied input filaments are combined together in the mixer into an extrudate mixture. The extrudate mixture is removed from the mixer, solidified, and then the solidified extrudate mixture is milled into a powder.

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 process and system for rapidly fabricating small batches of powder coating compositions having desired colors from one or more solid input filaments. An additive manufacturing filament fabricator feeds one or more single-color solid polymer input filaments into a heated mixer in accordance with an input formulation to be liquefied and mixed to produce a homogenous extrudate mixture. The extrudate mixture is solidified on an extrudate receiving platform and is then comminuted by an extrudate mill into a finished powder coating composition having a desired color.

Techniques involve a machine system for producing or treating synthetic threads, comprising a plurality of machine components, having actuators and/or sensors, that are associated with a plurality of control components. The control components are connected by a machine network to a central machine control station. In order to remedy process disruptions as quickly as possible and to ensure uniform product quality, the control components are coupled in parallel to a central analysis station by an analysis network.