Startup and Shutdown

PLA polymer 4060D is not compatible  

with a wide variety of polyolefin  

resins, and special purging  

sequences should be followed:

1. Clean extruder and bring tempera-

tures to steady state with low-

viscosity, general-purpose poly-

styrene or high MFR

polypropylene.

2. Vacuum out hopper system  

to avoid contamination.

3. Introduce PLA polymer into  

the extruder at the operating con-

ditions used in Step 1.

4. once PLA polymer has purged,

reduce barrel temperatures to de-

sired set points.