Much of our manufactured environment - many metals, plastics, glasses, ceramics, fiberglass and papers - consists of extrusion-molded products. To minimize waste, extrusion-molding plants must balance quality of product, speed of process and cost of production (primarily electricity) for each particular material. They need to know how fast each material can be processed at what energy cost while maintaining the quality of the finished bulk material. Fundamental changes in the macromolecular arrangement of materials occur at critical deformation rates. Thus, manufacturers can tailor the extrusion process to the characteristics of the material by knowing the key shear and extrusion rates that are revealed by the molecular structure of the material being processed whilst minimizing production costs, both in monetary terms and minimizing impact to the environment.

Research performed at BL1-4 at SSRL has been used to correlate the molecular structure of extrusion-molded polymers with its bulk material properties and determined those key shear and extrusion rates. Plants currently operating above the revealed optimum deformation rates can therefore save substantial electrical and environmental costs by reducing extrusion speed while retaining or improving the desired bulk rheological qualities in the finished product. The quality, profit and environmental implications of this procedure for industry are difficult to overemphasize.