A 35 lb. batch of 70 Durometer White FDA compliant EPDM rubber is milled from scratch. 100 parts (by weight) of EPDM polymer are mixed together with 100 parts of Filler and other powders, plus 20 parts of Process Oil and other liquids.
Brings back memories!! I once had a job making vinyl plastic, start to end. First, blended a batch of raw pvc (poly vinyl chloride) powder mixed with liquid plasticizers and concentrated pigments (base pigments that I measured with grams scale). Tossed it all on a hot steam-heated mill, cutting and folding, cutting and folding more. When it was all thoroughly melted and making the right “popping & snapping” sounds, one long smooth cut to peel away from the chrome roller and directly into a grinding machine. At the end of a shift, I was so thoroughly covered with pvc and titanium dioxide pigment, the black vinyl seat of my little Fiat car turned gray. . . . Hot hard work.
Couldn't you just dust yourself off with the air hose? I work in a plastics factory currently, and by the end of my shift; I'm covered from head to toe in regrind fines. But it's no big deal, I just dust myself off with the compressed air gun.
@@SergeantExtreme Yes, air gun blew off the thick accumulations of grinder dust. . .. The tough component was Titanium dioxide (we called it “titanox”) that I was in contact in its purest undiluted form. It is the very pure white pigment that I scooped from bags to add to my “cake mix” of ingredients before cold blending. Then, buckets of that powdered mix of ingredients got tossed onto the rollers for “cooking” into actual vinyl. . . . By the way, another mill was next to me, and the other operator and I occasionally got into air gun wars, blasting clouds of plastic dust at each other. Good times!
@@reggievangleason9511 l did work on a ici plant in the UK similar process but a pre mixer ..then a Banbury pressure ram to turn it into a hot gel before going to the mill……then a water bath , cube cutter and cooling blender before putting into a 25 kg sack ……and after weighing the pigment out it was always very very difficult to remove red , green and black pigment from around your eyes …..but that was in the late 70s …
@@Mike-om4tv obviously you've never done this kind of work. It's a lot more difficult than you think. People who are experts like the operator here make it look easy. It's not easy.
My 1st job out of high school was running one of these mills for the ink industry. We mixed Nitrocellulose with pigments and solvents. Funny thing with Nitrocellulose is its ability to self combust......it was fun. The factory I worked at for 3+ years, exploded about 1 month after I left for another job.
That actually occurred here in the United States, but for another reason: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-IRbC4kowrrY.html Consider yourself lucky you got out when you did!
@@rustyshackleford6693 I mean, do you really want a job here? Because they're hiring. You can just go to PAI's website, and hover your mouse over the "About" section, and click on Careers. Then you just apply for a job.
The inventor, Jean Marcus Patterson, originally came up with the idea in 1857 whilst playing with random kitchen supplies and a pasta maker. Fascinating!
Why wouldn't you pre-mix all the fillers, additives, and oils in a Banbury mixer prior to putting that through the mill? Everything ended up in the pan anyway.
I have same question. When I did this, all was premixed to powder form. I pushed a canvas belt against the mix until the powder started to melt, the I lowered the belt and started the manual slicing to fold edges back in.
@@Chris-du7hi Really? How long does it take to break down in a landfill? What other byproducts are used/generated in the process of manufacturing it? How much energy does it take to manufacture, and what is the carbon impact of that? Yes, anything that can't be recycled and has to eventually take up space in the ground for 100 years is bad. A planet can't do that indefinitely.
Satisfying to watch, we make synthetic rubber sheets from wastage polyethylene for footwear industry, bag luggage industry and cattle farm. Let us know if you have anything on making synthetic rubber
The US isn't a nanny state. That's why things cost 3x as much, and take 5x as long to get done over here in the UK. You have to pay 5 guys to stand around and watch 1 guy work.
@@littlejackalo5326 that depends on where the work is happening. I assure you, you can find the five guys standing around while one guy works all over there place haha
@Dean Alexander That's what I thought, makes me cringe to watch it. I worked at the L&B in Leyland where the Lunn bar was invented, before I got there though. As for being a nanny state, when you get lifted off your feet by an 84" mill, and the only thing to stop you being dragged into the nip is the Lunn bar, you'll thank God for 'nanny' Lunn's invention.
Ran a 48" and a 60" mill... Got the job because the last person dropped his blade in the mill, and attempted to get it out... He lost 8 fingers... Even a tiny mill will and can kill you if you're not careful.. Sometimes we worked with a partner... And every once in a great while, our blades would collide, and someone usually got cut....
At 2:27, you will see a red line above the operator. That is one of the safety devices that shuts down the mill. If the operator is in danger, they can reach up and trip this line to shut down the machine. Some of the mills also have a knee plate on the lower portion of the mill. If both hands are compromised, the operator can shut down the machine by tripping this plate with their knee.
Shouldn't this machine be worked with a foot pedal? Once you release the pedal, the rolls open up & stop for safety within a few milliseconds. The idea of the hand getting caught & slipping between the rolls, worries me.
That must suck mixing and milling at the same time. We have a fully built mixer station that sits the floor above our mill that blends all the compounds for us and when it's done it drops down to the mill for milling.
We mix a wide variety of materials. In this case, it would not be possible to achieve the cleanliness requirements specified by the customer using an internal mixer.
@@martyl6388 how wouldnt it? We run colors and black material through our internal mixers. But when we switch from black to colors we clean the internal chute and mixer wheels with solvents and it comes out perfectly clean every time.
@@martyl6388 and trust me when I say zero contamination. we run medical grade rubber through that mixer every week. It's definitely possible if you run a cleaning operation on color change.
I run a 60” and a 100” mill every day. We have ran color through our mixers as well with black rubber. And we have very little contamination. Color clean outs are key and actual clean outs are viral to the mixing and milling operation.
Depending on the compound. Typically the bowls of the mill are kept to a set temperature by water cooling. Its the gear ratio of the bowls that induce shear (1:1.2 if memory serves), which generates heat to help process the elastomer.
This must not be a high volume operation. Otherwise, it would be easier and faster to do the initial mixing in a Banbury and finish blending on the mill.
I would say it's more on par with lab scale. Like you say, Banbury or z blade would be much more efficient. Though I have had some interesting success masterbatching nanos in elastomer on a 2 roll vs z or Banbury.
Creo yo que el operador o mezclador debería saber trabajar con ambas manos y me refiero al uso del cuchillo que usa para cortar . Lo demás esta perfecto
This is not proper mixing young man. Because.u.r.not mousticate raw rubber of epdm material. 2nd thing is Melt the acceleration material quickly. This is not proper prociser of rubber mixing