About the Instructor: Pravin Shah
Pravin L. Shah is President of Rheo-Plast Associates Inc., a consulting firm based in Reading, PA. Rheo-plast provides technical expertise and consultation on polymer rheology and its applications in extrusion, injection molding, and compounding of new blends and alloys with complete laboratory facility for plastics testing and compounding. Pravin has done postgraduate research in rheology and polymer processing. Rheo-Plast provides hands-on consulting service for the extrusion of PVC, polyolefins, and engineering plastics in strip, tubing and profile extrusion. Rheo-Plast offers several training seminars on rheology and extrusion, which are also available on CD-ROM.

Pravin has over 25 years of industrial and consulting experience in polymer rheology, materials science, extrusion, molding screw and die design. He holds many patents to his credit covering a wide range of new composites from PVC to PEEK materials. Pravin has pioneered many new melt rheology concepts and has developed many proprietary PVC formulations for wire and cable, profile, and sheet applications. Further information can be found on his companies website: www.rheoplast.com

Pravin has published over 50 technical papers, and has authored two major chapters on rheology in a PVC encyclopedia (Edited by L. Nass, Marcel Decker, 1977) and a "Handbook of Engineering Plastics" (Edited by I. Rubin, John Wiley, 1990). He is currently writing a two volume series on "Guide to Resin Characterization for Processing" and "A Handbook of Practical Rheology." He is a senior member of SPE. Pravin has taught polymer rheology and advanced extrusion seminars at many industrial organizations and leading universities around the world. More than 5,000 students have graduated from his Practical Rheology seminar. In 1997 Pravin received the "International Who's Who of Entrepreneurs Award," followed by SPE's "Who's Who in Polymers and Plastics Award" in 2000. In 2001 Pravin received Cambridge, England's prestigious award "Who's Who in 21st Century" for his original and pioneering work in polymer rheology research. He has been a frequent speaker, moderator and seminar instructor at various SPE conferences for more than 20 years.

Seminar Content
Introduction to Polymer Melt Rheology
Fundamentals of Melt Rheology • Classification of fluid behavior • Flow models • Effect of temperature on viscosity • Effect of pressure on viscosity • Effect of shear rate on viscosity • Effect of Molecular weight on viscosity
Instruments to Measure Flow Properties
Commercial Rheometers
Significance of Flow Properties • Polymer melt viscosity • Polymer elasticity and extrudate defects • Mechanism of flow instability- Flow visualization through a glass capillary
Melt Rheology Data and their Practical Applications in Extrusion and Molding Processes
How to Apply Polymer Rheology Know-How in Improving Extrusion Productivity • A rheological overview of the extrusion process w Rheological aspects of extruder screw design • Relationship between melt pressure, viscosity, and melt temperature in extrusion • Calculations of shear rate in extruder screw and die • How to optimize extruder throughput rates
Applications of Polymer Rheology in Materials Testing and Process Control • Material characterization • Methods of evaluating extruder performance • Process control and optimization