The plastics processing laboratory offers the most important methods of plastics treatment and processing.

Extruders are screw extruders which melt and homogenize plastic granulate and continuously press the melt through a nozzle (extrusion).

Plastic profiles, such as pipes, hoses, window construction profiles, films, and much more are produced by extrusion. These plastic profiles have a constant cross section and the length can be adjusted as required.

However, extruders can also be used to process plastics very efficiently. During the preparation process, polymer raw materials are mixed with additives, homogenized, and processed into a free-flowing granulate.

The free-flowing granulate from the extruder can then be used to fill the hopper (at the top right in the lower picture) of an injection moulding machine.

Injection moulding machines are the most efficient method for the production of plastic mouldings, e.g. mobile phone housings, CD blanks, housings for electrical appliances, etc. The picture shows a microprocessor-controlled Arburg Allrounder 270 S-350-150.

An important treatment process for very tough polymers, such as rubber, is rolling.

The rolling mill exerts very high shear forces on the mixture, so that even very tough masses can be mixed and homogenized with little heating. This produces a so-called milled sheet. These milled sheets are then pressed into shaped parts in a press.

In the press mould, a milled sheet made of plastic rubber is converted into a moulded part made of elastic rubber by cross-linking (vulcanization) under the application of pressure and temperature. The pressing of rubber is of utmost importance for the car tyre industry, for example.