Purging Compounds for General Extrusion

Profile extrusion is a continuous process where contamination issues can lead to large amounts of scrap and necessitate time-consuming teardowns. The wide range of resins and additives in profile increases the likelihood that problems might occur. If you’re using virgin or regrind for changeovers, things will only get worse. Whether your plant is running UV-resistant vinyl siding for housing or clear parts for medical, Asaclean^® has the products and experience to solve your processing issues. Here’s why Asaclean^® Purging Compounds are the preferred choice for the best profile extruders worldwide.

Why Asaclean® Purging Compounds are the Best Choice for Profile Extruders

When we hear from profile extruders, they are usually concerned about carbon/color contamination, reducing changeover time, difficult start-ups, and time-consuming screw pushes.

In a continuous process like extrusion, contamination has a detrimental effect on your business’s bottom line. Extruders tend to have bigger issues than other processors. Once contamination begins, it’s almost impossible to stop it without aggressive intervention – usually through pushing the screw or the use of a purging compound.

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Any processor using resins like ABS, PVC, HDPE, PC, and PS understand that changeovers can be tricky. When you consider the additives, modifiers, and reinforcing agents that make your end products so valuable, contamination issues and scrap may feel like they’re just part of the process.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

59%

On average, Asaclean®’s profile extrusion customers save 59% on reduced scrap & downtime.

1. Asaclean® Purging Compounds Are Optimized for Profile Extrusion

Profile Extrusion processors don’t need to experience contamination and lengthy changeovers. We offer Mechanical Purging Compounds, Chemical Purging Compounds, and Purging Concentrates designed to tackle your unique set of processing challenges.

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Once we identify your needs, we will help you choose the best grade of Asaclean® for you.

For Profile Extrusion, Asaclean® grades:

Remove all color & carbon streaking
Clean the screw & barrel thoroughly
Quickly clean out the die
Are safe for tight die clearances
Are easily displaced by your processing resins
Easily purge super-engineering resins
Dramatically reduce scrap and defect rates
Shorten material and color changeover time
Help facilitate easier & faster screw pushes
Seal your machine during shutdowns to promote easier start-ups
Have low residue formulas for clear applications

With the world-class R&D team of Asahi Kasei in Japan, Asaclean® offers incredible cleaning performance coupled with expert technical & product support.

“My company switched to Asaclean® about 3 or 4 years ago. It literally cut the cleaning time of our extruders in half! We no longer must use the wire brushes to finish cleaning after purging.”

April P. , Master Trainer, Medical Extruder, Wisconsin

For profile extrusion applications, we generally recommend Asaclean®’s legacy line of Mechanical Purging Compounds.

Because profile extrusion is a fairly simple process and cleaning is mostly focused on the screw and barrel, chemical or concentrate purges aren’t typically necessary.

Mechanical Purging Compounds are compounded specifically to match your processing temperatures, your resins, your MFR’s, and your processing needs. Mechanical Purging Compounds depend on your machine’s power to do the work. They rely on pressure and agitation to clean out the previous resin or any contamination within your machine.

Unlike regrind or virgin resins, Mechanical Purging Compounds are designed to clean. They have strong detergency and have no affinity to metal. This guarantees your machine will be running clean in no time.

Asaclean® offers a full line of Purging Compounds for all processing situations.

For screw pushes, sealing, color/material changes, and black speck/carbon removal, there are different solutions. Work with your Asaclean® Purging Expert to find the best solution for you.

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2. Our Team Understands the Needs of Profile Extruders

Asaclean® Technical Service Representatives offer a unique level of service not found in other areas of the industry. Your point-of-contact is a processor, not a salesperson.

With over 200 years of combined processing experience, we understand your issue and can offer solutions. We’ve seen it all and are here to help you.

“We use Asaclean® and I’ve never seen anything quite like it—it removes everything we want to remove and doesn’t stay behind to contaminate our next run.”

Robert R. , Director of Material Development, Extruder, General Industrial, California

3. We Will Train Your Team to Be Asaclean® Purging Experts

Asaclean® Purging Compounds are incredibly easy to use, but you will only see your best results when you follow our recommended purging procedures.

When it comes to purging compounds, less is more.

We do not want you to use more Asaclean® than is necessary to achieve your best performance. If you use more than we recommend, your cost savings will drop.

We want you to get the absolute best performance using the least amount of Asaclean®. That is why we place such a premium on training your team.

When you select Asaclean®, we will diagnose your issues, build out a free Purge Program, and train your shifts on how to use Asaclean® to get the best results.

We will help you trial our product, provide in-person or virtual training, answer any questions, and be available however necessary to help your team succeed.

“Asaclean® support goes over and above. Training is a part of that. it's great to have our rep in front of people giving training, because if five pounds works, ten pounds is not better. Training is key when you're using these products, and I feel that if I called my Asaclean® rep for help at midnight he would probably answer.”

John S. , Manufacturing Manager, Northwest

3 Tips for Better Production Runs in Profile Extrusion

1. Don’t Use Production Resin for Changeovers or to Purge Your Extruder

Historically, we’ve talked to processors who look at the price of the production resin and tell us that they’re okay taking a little longer on changeovers because the cost of resin is cheap. Over time you will have contamination issues that will bring production to a screeching halt. Production resins are not designed to clean machines and are not a substitute for commercial purging compounds.

Purging your extruder with the next resin or regrind is time-consuming, wasteful, and ineffective at removing color and carbon contamination. While you might think you’re running good product, a few things are happening that will cause much bigger headaches down the road.

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First, although you don’t see it happening, your resins are layering within your screw, barrel, and die. Eventually those layers will break off and cause contamination issues that will require a teardown.

Second, your output will decrease. Many processors call our team looking for answers about why their output dropped. Usually, this has to do with conditions changing within the screw and barrel.

Third, you are unnecessarily wasting time on changeovers, and production resins are too expensive to justify hundreds or thousands of pounds of scrap.

The cost of production resin isn’t so cheap anymore, and supply-chain issues make commodity and engineering resins much harder to come by.

You can’t afford to waste production material. It’s scarce and costly.

2. Be Proactive—Not Reactive—When it Comes to Purging

Many extruders only use purging compounds when it’s absolutely necessary. But engaging in this type of purging “process” leads to reduced profitability and efficiency.

Adopting preventive purging practices not only saves your facility from machine downtime. It also reduces your scrap rates, customer rejects, and line shutdowns. You can’t afford to wait to run purging compounds until the last minute because, by that time, you’re already suffering from contamination issues or color streaks.

Using a purging compound at regular intervals prevents contamination from the beginning. Typically, it only takes 1-2-barrel capacities of purging compound to prevent contamination. Preventative purging saves time and money through efficient use of capacity and prevents unplanned downtime.

There are three main benefits to implementing a preventive maintenance program and purging process at your facility:

Preventing the buildup of color and carbon contamination
Reducing excessive purging time and material waste at the end of production runs
Limiting the frequency of screw pushes and minimizing the time and effort required to pull and manually clean your screw

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3. If You Have to Push Screws, Use EX Grade to Reduce Downtime

Because screw pushes are commonly performed only after a problem is detected, most plants are focused on addressing the immediate problem, and not on how costly the cleaning truly is.

Removing your screw from your machine without a purge requires great effort, and the cleaning itself takes hours of manual, tedious scrubbing. You must remove the layers of resins or contaminants that have accumulated around the screw. This excessive downtime is certainly affecting your company’s bottom line.

If you’re running until failure or running until you experience severe contamination, EX Grade is a solution that can make your life much easier in a hurry.