Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Open Access Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (MS)

Administrative Home Department

Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

Advisor 1

Mahesh Gupta

Committee Member 1

Antonio Gauchia

Committee Member 2

Gopal Jayaraman

Abstract

This report deals with design of dies used in the plastic extrusion industry. The design methodology for extrusion dies has evolved over the years with advancement of computing technology. However, the design process is still heavily dependent on the experience of the die designer, and hence is still considered to be more of an art than science. Even for an experienced designer, the time required to design the die and perform consecutive fine tuning iterations is high. In this report, a proprietary optimization code for extrusion dies, .developed by Plastic Flow LLC, was tested and shown to be advantageous over manual methods of flow balancing which are still being applied in the industry. Also, there is no published literature discussing certain finer aspects of die design, which have proven to be successful commercially. The current work, reviews these strategies, and provides a document of design guidelines which would be useful to relatively new die design engineers.

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