Method and system for manufacturing bulked continuous filament having tonal coloring from PET comprising: an extruder (202); a static mixing assembly (208) coupled to the extruder and comprising a housing and one or more individual static mixing elements disposed within the housing; the method and system further comprising a plurality of colorant ports along a length of the static mixing assembly such that each of the plurality of colorant ports is configured to provide colorant (204) to a polymer stream at a different location along the length of the static mixing assembly, and one or more spinning machines (212) positioned downstream of the static mixing assembly and coupled to the static mixing assembly to receive the colored polymer stream. The spinning machine(s) may be configured to form the colored polymer stream into bulked continuous carpet filament having a tonal color effect.

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) adding one or more color concentrates to the flakes; (E) passing the group of flakes through an extrusion system while maintaining the pressure within the extrusion system below about 25 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) adding one or more color concentrates to the flakes; (E) passing the group of flakes through an extrusion system while maintaining the pressure within the extrusion system below about 25 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 and an extrusion device for producing a foamed body. A plastics melt is produced inside the casing of a first extruder. The plastics melt is conveyed to an outlet die of a second extruder. The conveyed plastics melt has a foaming agent and expands after being fed through the outlet die. Before the plastics melt is fed through the outlet die, variations in temperature between different radial positions over the cross-section of the plastics melt are reduced by an extruder screw device which has a number of screw spindles distributed around the periphery. The plastics melt which is thus thermally homogeneous is fed through the outlet die.

A method and an extrusion device for producing a foamed body. A plastics melt is produced inside the casing of a first extruder. The plastics melt is conveyed to an outlet die of a second extruder. The conveyed plastics melt has a foaming agent and expands after being fed through the outlet die. Before the plastics melt is fed through the outlet die, variations in temperature between different radial positions over the cross-section of the plastics melt are reduced by an extruder screw device which has a number of screw spindles distributed around the periphery. The plastics melt which is thus thermally homogeneous is fed through the outlet die.

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 from recycled polymer. In various embodiments, the method includes: (1) reducing recycled polymer material into polymer flakes; (2) cleansing the polymer flakes; (3) melting the flakes into a polymer melt; (4) removing water and contaminants from the polymer melt by dividing the polymer melt into a plurality of polymer streams and exposing those streams to pressures below 25 millibars or another predetermined pressure; (5) recombining the streams; and (6) using the resulting purified polymer to produce bulked continuous carpet filament.

An extruder screw for a multi-screw extruder for plastics extrusion includes: a feeding and metering zone for melting and homogenizing the plastic and an evacuating zone for carrying away gaseous constituents and a compressing and/or discharging zone; a multi-screw section, which has a plurality of planetary screws, which lie open on the outer circumference of the extruder screw, at least over part of their length; and a driving zone, in which the planetary screws engage by way of a toothing in an external toothing on a central shaft or in an internal toothing in a stator ring or in the inner wall of an extruder bore of the multi-screw extruder. The feeding and metering zone extends into the multi-screw section, wherein the respective part of the planetary screws that is lying in the metering zone is at least partially enclosed.

A method of manufacturing a plurality of colors of bulked continuous carpet filament from a single multi-screw extruder which, in various embodiments, comprises: (A) passing PET through an extruder that melts the PET and purifies the resulting PET polymer melt; (B) splitting the extruded polymer melt into a plurality of melt streams and adding a colorant to each of the plurality of melt streams; (C) using one or more static mixers (e.g., thirty six static mixers) to substantially uniformly mix (e.g., homogeneously mix) each of the plurality of melt streams with its respective added colorant; and (D) feed each of the uniformly mixed and colored plurality of melt streams into a respective spinning machines that turns the polymer into filament for use in manufacturing carpet, rugs, and other products.

A method of manufacturing a plurality of colors of bulked continuous carpet filament from a single multi-screw extruder which, in various embodiments, comprises: (A) passing PET through an extruder that melts the PET and purifies the resulting PET polymer melt; (B) splitting the extruded polymer melt into a plurality of melt streams and adding a colorant to each of the plurality of melt streams; (C) using one or more static mixers (e.g., thirty six static mixers) to substantially uniformly mix (e.g., homogeneously mix) each of the plurality of melt streams with its respective added colorant; and (D) feed each of the uniformly mixed and colored plurality of melt streams into a respective spinning machines that turns the polymer into filament for use in manufacturing carpet, rugs, and other products.