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.
