In any continuous extrusion process, scrap adds up quickly and contamination can derail your profitability. Whether you’re running tubing for medical, extruding colored pipe for industrial, or jacketing wire for electrical, Asaclean® has a high-quality purging compound designed for your specific needs.
Learn why Asaclean® Purging Compounds are the preferred choice for the best wire, tubing, and pipe extruders worldwide.
When we hear from wire, pipe, & tubing extruders, they usually are asking for help with a number of process-specific production issues. If you’re reading this section, then you’ve probably experienced some of these challenges firsthand:
Wire extruders use resins like PP, PVC, PBT, and PE and need to work with flame retardants and different colors. Tubing processors need to deal with PVC and clear applications that deal with carbon and residue. Pipe extruders face difficult color changes using reds, blues, blacks, and difficult additives.
Any processor using these materials understands that changeovers can be tricky. Contamination issues and scrap may feel like they’re just part of the process. It doesn’t have to be that way.
“I've been using Asaclean® for 6 years. I love it. I recently started a new job and insisted on my team using Asaclean®. It immediately reduced our changeover time from 4 hours down to 15 minutes. It's a great product and I recommend it to everyone.”
On average, Asaclean®’s wire extrusion customers save 61% on reduced scrap & downtime.
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.
Because the 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. EX Grade is the best option for contamination in most situations.
For polished dies, and/or dies with tight clearances, we are more likely to recommend our Chemical Purging Compounds like NCR Grade because they’re safe and effective for these environments.
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.
As we mentioned before, gauge variance and inconsistent output are two of the concerns we hear about the most. When previous resin starts layering within your extruder, your output and gauge variance will start to become inconsistent. Purging preventatively and during extended runs (even those without material or color changes) stop contamination from forming on your screw and in your barrel. These headaches can easily be avoided with a basic Purge Program.
Different grades of Asaclean® are “the best” at different things. Make sure the purge you’re using is the best one to achieve your goals. If you’re running low-temp resins, worry about residue, or change colors frequently, there are 3 different “best” choices to solve your problem. Always work with an Asaclean® Purging Expert to be sure you have the best option for you.
You run continuously and need to make sure you hit the ground running after extended downtime. If you have a planned shutdown, always seal with Asaclean® before you shut down. Unfilled grades of Asaclean® will clean out your machine as soon as you add production resin when you restart your line, so you will be running good parts quicker and easier.
Our customers save the most money on scrap and downtime by using EX Grade during screw pushes. The shorter the time needed for teardowns, the more time you have to run good product.
As a best practice, we always recommend processors perform color changeovers from clear/light colors to dark colors. If your plant has the flexibility to plan out your production schedule to do this, it will supercharge the savings you find with our Purging Compounds.
Request a free sample of Asaclean® Purging Compounds for your plant and start saving today.
Use our free calculator to see how much you could be saving with Asaclean® Purging Compounds.
