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Melt Pumps for Silicone Tube Extrusion Production Lines

In silicone tube extrusion production lines, melt pumps serve as both precision pressure stabilizers and guardians of constant flow. Thanks to core advantages such as stable-pressure delivery, precise metering, and melt homogenization, they can significantly improve the dimensional accuracy, surface finish, and overall production efficiency of silicone tubes. As such, they are essential standard equipment for the mass production of high-end silicone tubes and medical-grade silicone catheters.

Silicone raw materials generally exhibit characteristics such as high viscosity, high thermal sensitivity, and shear sensitivity. Traditional single-screw extrusion processes are easily affected by fluctuations in feed rate, temperature drift, and backpressure changes, leading to pressure pulsations. This results in issues such as uneven wall thickness, eccentricity, rippling, poor surface appearance, and high scrap rates. Installing a melt pump can address common pain points in silicone extrusion at the source of the process, enabling stable production, high-quality products, energy savings, and improved efficiency.

The Core Role of Melt Pumps in Silicone Tube Extrusion

1. Isolating Fluctuations and Stabilizing Melt Pressure for Smoother Extrusion

Melt pumps feature a positive-displacement, forced-feed design that isolates pressure fluctuations from the extruder upstream of the pump, delivering a stable and continuous flow of silicone melt to the die. Outlet pressure fluctuations can be controlled within **±1%**, effectively eliminating pulsations, striations, and wall thickness variations, resulting in better concentricity of finished products and higher batch consistency.

2. Precise metering locks flow rate, strictly controlling dimensional deviations

The melt pump’s output flow rate is linearly proportional to its rotational speed; adjusting the pump speed allows for precise control of the extrusion volume, enabling closed-loop online control of wall thickness. Compared to traditional extrusion methods, silicone tube wall thickness deviation has been optimized from **±5% to ±8% to ±1%**, significantly improving yield and material utilization rates. This makes it ideal for the production of thin-walled, high-precision, medical-grade silicone tubing.

3. Secondary homogenization of the melt to enhance transparency and mechanical strength

During the forced conveyance process via gear meshing, the silicone melt undergoes further dispersion, homogenization, and degassing to remove bubbles. This reduces crystal spots, air bubbles, and agglomerated impurities, resulting in products with better light transmission, smoother inner walls, and superior tensile and pressure resistance. These products meet the stringent requirements of high-barrier applications such as medical, food, and water purification industries.

4. Reduced Load and Stress, Extending the Service Life of the Extruder

With the addition of a pump, pressure build-up is handled by the pump, allowing the extruder to focus on plasticization and mixing. The extruder operates at low pressure over the long term, reducing wear on the screw and barrel, lowering the load, and extending the major overhaul cycle to 1.5–2 times the original duration, resulting in lower overall operating and maintenance costs.

5. Excellent High-Temperature and High-Viscosity Compatibility, Suitable for Demanding Silicone Applications

The entire machine is manufactured from high-temperature-resistant, wear-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials, capable of withstanding operating conditions up to **400°C**. It is suitable for the continuous extrusion of high-temperature, high-viscosity, filled, and modified silicones, ensuring stable operation, minimal downtime, and excellent continuity.

6. Reduced Energy Consumption, Increased Line Speed, and Enhanced Production Capacity Benefits

Following the optimization of process division of labor, the line’s overall energy consumption has decreased by 15%–20%. At the same time, the maximum extrusion speed has increased by more than 30%, making the line more suitable for powder-added, color-matched, and blended/filled silicone rubber production. The longer it runs, the more energy-efficient and faster it becomes.

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