Extruders Made in China

Low-priced Chinese-built extruders such as the single screw extruder and twin screw extruder have arrived in North America and Canada to make PVC pipes, sheets, films, and profiles. For the Chinese extrusion machine industry, this is good news. But there are some problems with the Chinese extruders, too. The most frequent general problem encountered has to do with the electrical compatibility issues, ranging from relatively benign—e.g., replacing a Chinese controller with a U.S.-made one—to much more significant. Wires, for example, might be the right color but too thin to meet our electrical codes. In the worst cases, processors had to call in electrical contractors to rewire entire machines to bring them up to code, and this can be very expensive.

Therefore, some of these North American buyers felt good about their purchase and ordered more machines, while others were not as happy with their purchase because of the problems they experienced.