[Hayesimus]

Here is my response to your inquiry as to what I do all night at work.

Well, I work for a packaging company. They make things like gladware, saran wrap, and maybe even plastic that is later used to make trashbags from what I've been told.

Well, my department is called Blown Film.

This is a process by which chemicals are mixed together along with PVC and are then heated and pushed through an extruder. The emerge from the extruder facing the ceiling in the shape of a ring. That ring expands to form a bubble that rises for about3 stories. At this point the bubble is squeezed between to cylinders called nip rolls. It then begins its journey back downstairs. It zigzags between more smaller cylinders called Idler Bars that create tension. It then goes through another nip roll. Now since this is a bubble that has been smashed together essentially, there are two sides, so we then seperate the two sides and send them to two different nip rolls called winders. Each winder has two sets of cardboard cores to roll the plastic up. One spinning plastic and one waiting its turn. THese are called mandrels.

Now the sizes and lengths and thickness of the plastic can all vary, but we usually run 4 18in. and 2 12in. 2,000 ft rolls. These take about 6 minutes to complete. THen a buzzer sounds. We take a big knife and "transfer" the plastic to the new mandrel. We pick up the full mandrel which weighs around 80 lbs and hang it in a holder on one end. We then peel the end of the plastic off the roll because there is wax on the new mandrel so that the plastic will stick to it. We peel any wax off the complete rolls. Then they are set on a skid for shipping. Then we put new cores on the mandrel and set it on the winder where it waits its turn. :P


ANy questions?