Extrusion line Aifuer AFE28
Method description
Extrusion is a continuous processing technique for thermoplastics. Filaments of different diameters are produced for 3D printing using FDM technology.
Device description
Extrusion line AFE28 producer Suzhou Aifuer Machinery CO., LTD (figure 1):
- Single-screw SJ25/28
- Screw material: 38CrMoALA
- Screw diameter: 25 mm
- L/D = 28:1
- Speed: 72 min-1
- Capacity: 3-5 kg/h
- Filament diameter: 1,75 - 3 mm
- Filament tolerance range: +/-0.02-0.03mm
- Control: PLC with closed-loop control of thick-non-filament
- Example of pre-filament material: ABS, PLA, PETG, PEEK ASA, PP80% - Carbon fiber 20%, PA etc.
Preparation of the granulate is carried out in a hopper-type doser, where the granulate can also be dried with hot air from a built-in vent-tilator with a heater. Three
temperature zones + the temperature of the nozzle itself can be set on the cylinder, as well as the temperature of the heated bath.
In addition to the air-cooling unit, the extruder has a water bath (figure 2) which allows cooling and vacuum drying of the extruded material.
The filament passes through a laser filament diameter gauge into the drawing segment of the preparation
and then into the servo winding preparation, where the filament is wound into spools.
Examples of applications
The extruder can be used to optimise extrusion parameters and to optimise thermoplastic blends or composites with a thermoplastic matrix in the FDM filament.
Applications in industry
For industrial applications, it is used in recipe optimisation in thermoplastic compounds and thermoplastic composites. It is also used to produce demonstrator materials for projects developing new thermoplastic blends, thermoplastic matrix composites and to optimise processing conditions by compounding. We also use it to produce FDM filaments which can then be granulated in a granulator and use for the purpose of GDM 3D printing. We also carry out tests where we use design of experiments to determine the optimum ratios of components to achieve the desired properties.