Plastic Blown Film Extrusion Line - Purchasing Guide: 10 questions to ask

As engineering consultants, we have a set of question we ask when a client approaches us with a consideration to purchase a plastic blown film extrusion line. By answering the questions we can gather most of the information that is required in order to establish an accurate and comprehensive specification that meets your business and technical needs.

Questions about the application

1) The most important and the most generic question that needs to be asked is about the specific application the machine would be used for.  There are a host of potential applications that blown film extrusion can be used for. Understanding the intended application helps narrow down the technical specification.

2) The width and thickness range of the film produced by the blown film extrusion line are some of the most important technical parameters of the machine. We always advise our customers to start the enquiry with a range of width that not only accommodates the current requirements but reflects to future potential applications as well.
For the required thickness you can give us a range as well.  While operating the extruder machine, you will be able to choose a thickness from the specified range that the machine is capable to keep at a very high level of accuracy.

3) The number of layers of the manufactured film is a very crucial factor that defines the structure of the extrusion machine. Today’s fastest growing plastic packaging market is the flexible packaging. The flexible packaging requires high barrier property plastic film consisting of as many as five to nine layers.

4) The type of resin intended to be used for the given applications.  No matter what polyethylene resin you use, weather it is e.g. LLDPE, HDPE, or LDPE, we can find you the extrusion machinery model that can process the resin required for your application.Our machines are capable to co-extrude a wide range of polyethylene and non-polyethylene resins producing for instance symmetrical, or unsymmetrical   PE/PA film.

Questions about the planned technical parameters of the Blown Film Extrusion Line

5) The planned screw diameter is an important factor that helps to define the output capacity of the machine.

6) Die and lip sizes are interdependent of other main technical parameters, but are a very important part of the technical description of the film extrusion equipment.

7) There are three main choices of air rings, the standard, the dual lip and the precision dual lip. The air ring is a crucial part of the given technology in terms of defining the performance of the blown film extruder.

8) Depending on your choice, sizing cage can be adjusted by manual or by electrical remote control.

9) There are three types of winders available that are the surface winder, gap winder and the central winder. Also, they are available with manual or automated load control.

10) For the overall operation control of the blown film extrusion machine, there is a choice of standard or centralized control. This later option ensures that every process can be controlled at one single touch-screen panel.

We are aware that our clients might require technical advice in order to properly answer some of these questions.  The above questions are meant to very accurately map out the technical requirements of the solution our clients need. As far as the answers are thoroughly discussed and understood we can rest at ease that we have identified the best possible choice for a plastic blown film extrusion line.

Learn more about our blown film extrusion lines.