Within the early stages of a planned extrusion project, the extrusions themselves will need to be designed. Many extrusion companies have the specialist knowledge to be able to assist with the design process, as well as designing and manufacturing/sourcing the applicable tooling.
This is usually facilitated by producing a CAD design of the required extrusion, with plenty of collaboration between the buyer and supplier to achieve the required design specifications. Following this, the applicable die is manufactured - either by the supplier or a third party tooling specialist - before production begins.
The die is mounted to one end of an extrusion press, whilst the material is placed into the cylinder and forced through the die by a piston. Depending on whether a hot or cold extrusion process is being used, the material may be heated, or kept at room temperature.
As the material is forced out of the die, it takes on its profile, meaning that long lengths of extruded material can be created with cross-sectional symmetry. These are then cut to the required length.
