Coextrusion

The process of extruding two or more materials through a single die with two or more orifices arranged so that the extrudates merge and weld together into a laminar structure before chilling. Each material is fed to the die from a separate extruder, but the orifices may be arranged so that each extruder supplies two or more plies of the same material. Coextrusion can be employed in film blowing, free film extrusion, and extrusion coating processes. The advantage of coextrusion is that each ply of the laminate imparts a desired characteristic property, such as stiffness, heat-sealability, impermeability or resistance to some environment, all of which properties would be impossible to attain with any single material.