In 1951, two young research chemists for Phillips Petroleum Company in Bartlesville, Okla., made discoveries that revolutionized the plastics world. The technological road from oil field to finished plastic product has numerous fascinating side trips. Petroleum is drilled and transported to a refinery. Crude oil and natural gas are refined into ethane, propane, hundreds of other petrochemical products and, of course, fuel for your car. Fluff is combined with additives in a continuous blender.
Polymer is fed to an extruder where it is melted.
Melted plastic is cooled then fed to a pelletizer that cuts the product into small pellets. Pellets are shipped to customers. Customers manufacture plastic products by using processes such as extrusion, injection molding, blow molding, etc. The formed plastic cools under blown air or in a water bath and hardens on a moving belt. Plastic fibers also are made by an extrusion process.