Apparatus for working expandable thermoplastic materials

Abstract

A typical compression relief design extruder screw having a helical flight for advancing and working a thermoplastic material is modified to shorten the feed and compression sections and to include a plurality of force-producing components in at least the compression section of the screw such that at least some portion of the components in any one turn of the flight lie in one plane essentially normal to the axis of rotation of the screw and such that the walls of the flight are uninterrupted. This arrangement controls the location of the rupturing or fragmenting of what is referred to as the solid bed and controls the manner in which it is fragmented to provide an extrudate at a die end of the extruder which has a constant temperature and and which is uniform throughout each successive section of the thermoplastic material. Further, corresponding portions of the successive sections of the thermoplastic material at the die end are caused to have substantially identical time-temperature profiles which is particularly advantageous when extruding expandable insulation in minimizing amplitude of variation in the coaxial capacitance and the diameter of the insulated conductor.