A method for reducing fluctuations over time in discharge of a plastics composition when extruding plastics products, including melting plastics material in an extruder and supplying the plastics material to an extrusion die by way of one or more extruder screws arranged in the extruder, and conveying a plastics composition along an extrusion axis by rotating the one or more extruder screws as pressure builds up, wherein discharge of the plastics material at a transition region from the extruder to the extrusion die or in the extrusion die is kept constant by changing a rotational speed of the one or more extruder screws, and wherein changing the rotational speed is carried out within one revolution of the one or more extruder screws.

The present disclosure relates to a 3D printer (1) for 3D printing of a construct. The 3D printer (1) has a print bed (2). The 3D printer further comprises at least one actuating tool head (3) with an extrusion element (4), wherein the extrusion element and the print bed are movable in relation to each other. The 3D printer also comprises at least one sensor (5) arranged to sense a force applied to the print bed (2) by the extrusion element (4), or vice versa. The 3D printer additionally comprises a control element (7) arranged to detect when the sensed force exceeds a predetermined value and to record a position of the print bed or extrusion element related to the detection that the predetermined value is exceeded. The present disclosure also relates to corresponding methods and computer programs.

A rubber extrusion device comprises a control plate having an adjustment flow path communicating with an extrusion flow path formed in a head and an extrusion port formed in a die is interposed between the head and the die; the control plate is slid along and between the head and the die to change a position of a communication region of the extrusion flow path with respect to the adjustment flow path at a leading end opening of the extrusion flow path to set the control plate at a desired position; and unvulcanized rubber, obtained by mixing and kneading rubber material while extruding the rubber material forward with a screw, passes through the extrusion flow path and the adjustment flow path to be extruded from the extrusion port.

A method enabling the selection, modification and/or creation of polymer materials which can provide improved response to the application of local shear and/or extensional deformation inside the polymer melt in manufacturing technologies including injection molding, injection stretch blow molding, direct injection, extrusion blow molding, sheet extrusion, thermoforming, etc., is provided. A method for manufacturing a polymer article includes injecting or extruding molten polypropylene, polyethylene or polyester based polymer for converting it into semi-final shape while applying shear and/or extensional deformation on the polymer melt. Applying shear and/or extensional deformation on the polymer melt includes selectively modifying the flow path of the molten semi-crystallizable polymer as a function of local pressure profile over at least part of the flow path. Local pressure profile is a function of optimized response of the polymer melt to the applied local shear and/or extensional deformation over at least the part of the flow path.

A printhead a supplying portion with a supplying opening of a filament; a melting portion to melt a filament supplied; a discharging portion having a discharging opening to discharge the melted filament. A heat insulating portion between the supplying portion and the melting portion are integrally formed to effectively suppress heat in the melting portion conducting to the supplying portion even when the melting portion is heated to high temperature, to maintain the temperature of the supplying portion to an appropriate temperature, and to efficiently utilize heat by the melting portion as a result of heating the melting portion.

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.

An injection molding machine uses a native controller and a retrofit controller to effectively control its operation. The controllers may determine and/or receive information regarding the machine's maximum load capacity, and may also determine a current operational load value of the machine. The retrofit controller may cause the machine to operate at any number of combinations of settings of operational parameters which result in the machine operating at or below the maximum load value by adjusting any number of machine parameters associated with the injection molding machine based on feedback sensors measuring real-time operating conditions of the machine.

An apparatus for extruding a jacket and/or insulative material onto an extruded product with one or more longitudinal stripes incorporated onto the surface of said extruded product comprising a body, a primary feed conduit for conveying a primary extrusion material, a striping die, a secondary feed conduit for conveying a secondary extrusion material, a striping die adapter, a striping feed conduit extending through the striping die adapter for conveying striping extrusion material. The striping die adapter may also include a thermocouple for maintaining the viscosity of the striping extrusion material and a thermocouple for monitoring the temperature of said striping die adapter. The striping die includes one or more striping extrusion outlets for conveying striping extrusion material onto the extruded product. The striping die may also include a wishbone-shaped trough for delivering equal amounts of striping extrusion material to said extrusion outlets for extrusion onto the product.

A method of controlling a slot die comprises, while continuing to pass the extrudate through the fluid flow path and out the applicator slot, changing the position of the actuators with the controller to either increase the cross-directional thickness of the fluid flow path adjacent each of the actuators or substantially close the fluid flow path adjacent the actuators, and after changing the cross-directional thickness of the fluid flow path adjacent each of the actuators, while continuing to pass the extrudate through the fluid flow path and out the applicator slot, repositioning each of the actuators with the controller according to the set of discrete settings to resume operating the slot die with the actuators positioned according to the set of discrete settings.

A three-dimensional model built with an extrusion-based digital manufacturing system, and having a perimeter based on a contour tool path that defines an interior region of a layer of the three-dimensional model, where at least one of a start point and a stop point of the contour tool path is located within the interior region of the layer.