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.

Device and method for dispersing solids, liquids and gases in an extruder, having at least one shaft (1) and one housing (2), wherein at least one disk (4) with recesses is attached to the shaft, which at least one disk co-rotates with the shaft, and a non-co-rotating disk (3) is arranged immediately adjacent to the disk either in a product flow direction or counter to the product flow direction, which non-co-rotating disk likewise has recesses, and wherein the co-rotating disk is connected to the rotating shaft and has a gap (14) with respect to the housing, and the non-co-rotating disk is connected to the housing and has a gap (15) with respect to the rotating core shaft.

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 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 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 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.

The present invention relates to composite elements comprising a profile and an insulating core enclosed at least to some extent by the profile, where the insulating core is composed of an organic porous material which has a thermal conductivity in the range from 13 to 30 mW/m*K, determined in accordance with DIN 12667, and a compressive strength of more than 0.20 N/mm.sup.2, determined in accordance with DIN 53421, processes for producing composite elements of this type, and the use of a composite element of this type for producing windows, doors, refrigerators, and chest freezers, or elements for facade construction.

A method for manufacturing pellets from polymer, comprising: (1) melting polymer flakes in a first section of a melt processing unit to create a first single stream of polymer melt; (2) separating the first single stream of polymer melt into multiple streams of polymer melt by means of a separation element; (3) passing the multiple streams through a multiple stream section of said melt processing unit and exposing the multiple streams to a pressure within the multiple stream section of the melt processing unit as the multiple streams pass through the multiple stream section; (4) recombining the multiple streams into at least one combined stream of polymer melt; and (5) cooling the polymer melt and forming said pellets from the at least one combined stream. The intrinsic viscosity of the at least one combined stream may be determined and, in response, the chamber pressure within the multiple stream section adjusted.

A method for manufacturing pellets from polymer, comprising: (1) melting polymer flakes in a first section of a melt processing unit to create a first single stream of polymer melt; (2) separating the first single stream of polymer melt into multiple streams of polymer melt by means of a separation element; (3) passing the multiple streams through a multiple stream section of said melt processing unit and exposing the multiple streams to a pressure within the multiple stream section of the melt processing unit as the multiple streams pass through the multiple stream section; (4) recombining the multiple streams into at least one combined stream of polymer melt; and (5) cooling the polymer melt and forming said pellets from the at least one combined stream. The intrinsic viscosity of the at least one combined stream may be determined and, in response, the chamber pressure within the multiple stream section adjusted.

In particular embodiments, a process for producing bulked continuous carpet filament from recycled polymer utilizes two vacuum pumps in combination with a single extruder. In various embodiments, the dual vacuum arrangement (e.g., at least two vacuum pumps) operably coupled to the single extruder (e.g., MRS extruder) may be configured remove one or more impurities from recycled polymer as the recycled polymer passes through the extruder such that the process: (1) is more effective than earlier processes in removing contaminates and water from the recycled polymer; (2) allows for an increased throughput through a single extruder, which may result in a doubling of a number of thread lines produced from a single extruder; (3) results in a desired intrinsic viscosity for the extruded recycled polymer at the increased throughput; and/or (4) reduces an amount of downtime of a particular production line as a result of cleaning the two vacuum pumps.

Device for lateral flow charging of an extruder in which material is fed to at least one conveyor screw disposed in an extruder housing. The material contains gaseous concomitant materials, wherein a degassing housing for receiving an air flow is disposed on the extruder housing, which air flow acts in the extruder housing and which is directed contrary to the conveying direction of the conveyor screw.

A degassing extruder having a multi-screw unit, which degassing extruder comprises a housing having a feed region having a feed opening, an inner housing recess having an extraction opening extending as far as the outside and an outlet region having an outlet opening. The multi-screw unit rotatably arranged in the housing recess comprises: a rotor element having a main screw web extending over the outer circumference of a rotor shaft core, and a rotationally driven satellite screw, which is mounted in a receiving groove on the rotor element, which receiving groove extends at least along part of the length of the multi-screw unit. At least in the region of the extraction opening, the main screw web above the receiving groove has an respective opening recess for leading the satellite screw through.