Design and Manufacture of an Extrusion Die for Wood—Plastic Composite

Abstract

This paper presents a simulation study and experimental verification of a die design in extrusion processing wood-plastic composite profile. Flow balancing at the die exit is a major challenge in the profile extrusion die design as an unbalanced flow causes imperfect profile output. This is especially important when the final profile is complicated by having large dimensions and non-uniform thicknesses. In this study, an I-shaped profile of wood-plastic composite (WPC) has been considered for the die design. Finite element method has been used to design the die channel to yield a balanced output. Phases of die design and manufacture of the I-shape profile is presented. The results show that the prediction by the simulation could give a good insight to the die design which eventually could yield an acceptable profile.