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Continuous Profile Manufacturing

Push material through a die. Repeat the cross section continuously.

Extrusion forms continuous products by forcing material through shaped tooling. The emerging profile maintains a substantially consistent cross section along its length.

Extrusion Principle

The die opening defines the profile that continues along the extruded

The die opening defines the profile that continues along the extruded length.
Extrusion Materials Metal and polymer extrusion use the same broad idea but very different production systems.
01 / ALUMINUM

Aluminum Extrusion

Heated aluminum billet is pushed through a shaped die to produce profiles used in frames, channels, structural members, heat-management products, housings, and other applications.

02 / PLASTIC

Plastic Extrusion

Molten polymer moves continuously through tooling to produce tubing, channels, seals, profiles, sheet, and other constant-section products.

Extrusion Workflow The profile is only one part of the finished production sequence.
01
Prepare material

Billet, pellets, resin, or another feed form is prepared for the extrusion process.

02
Condition and force material

Material is heated, softened, or otherwise prepared before being pushed through the tooling.

03
Form the profile

The die opening controls the basic cross-sectional geometry of the emerging extrusion.

04
Cool and stabilize

The profile is controlled as it cools so dimensions, straightness, and geometry remain within requirements.

05
Cut or coil

Continuous product is cut to length, coiled, or otherwise prepared for later operations.

06
Finish and fabricate

Machining, drilling, coating, anodizing, printing, assembly, or other secondary work can complete the product.

Extrusion DFM A profile must flow through the die as one continuous cross section.

Wall thickness, unsupported features, enclosed cavities, symmetry, material flow, cooling, and final tolerances can all influence whether a profile is practical to extrude.

Maintain reasonable wall-thickness consistency
Avoid unnecessarily fragile thin features
Use radii and transitions appropriate for the material
Consider symmetry and material-flow balance
Plan machining for features that cannot run continuously
Separate profile tolerances from cut-length tolerances
Industrial extrusion and manufacturing equipment
Secondary Operations Extrusions often become finished components after additional work.
01

Machining

Drilling, milling, tapping, cutting, and other machining can add local features that cannot be created continuously.

02

Surface Finishing

Anodizing, painting, coating, polishing, printing, or other finishes can protect or modify appearance.

03

Assembly

Extruded profiles can be joined with brackets, fasteners, inserts, seals, panels, or other components.

Need geometry that is not limited to one continuous cross section?

Additive manufacturing builds complex geometry layer by layer directly from digital data without conventional extrusion dies.

Explore Additive Manufacturing →