Melting of homopolymers in co-rotating, intermeshing twin-screw extruders

Melting is a critical, but poorly understood process in the compounding of polymers with co-rotating, intermeshing twin-screw extruders. Efforts to describe the melting mechanisms are hampered by a lack of experimental evidence. The results of flow visualization experiments on polycarbonate (PC) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene copolymer (ABS) are presented for melting using a 30 mm diameter, co-rotating twin-screw extruder. Experiments were performed under conditions which accurately reflect those used for PC/ABS blends processing.