Product finishing section
Product finishing section means the equipment that treats, shapes, or modifies the polymer or resin to produce the finished end product of the particular facility, including equipment that prepares the product for product finishing. For the purposes of these standards, the product finishing section begins with the equipment used to transfer the polymerized product from the polymerization reaction section and ends with the last piece of equipment that modifies the characteristics of the polymer. Product finishing equipment may accomplish product separation, extruding and pelletizing, cooling and drying, blending, additives introduction, curing, or annealing. Equipment used to separate unreacted or by-product material from the product are to be included in this process section, provided the material separated from the polymer product is not recovered at the time the process section becomes an affected facility. If the material is being recovered, then the separation equipment are to be included in the material recovery section. Product finishing does not include polymerization, the physical mixing of the pellets to obtain a homogenous mixture of the polymer (except as noted below), or the shaping (such as fiber spinning, molding, or fabricating) or modification (such as fiber stretching and crimping) of the finished end product. If physical mixing occurs in equipment located between product finishing equipment (i.e., before all the chemical and physical characteristics have been set by virtue of having passed through the last piece of equipment in the product finishing section), then such equipment are to be included in this process section. Equipment used to physically mix the finished product that are located after the last piece of equipment in the product finishing section are part of the product storage section.
Source
40 CFR § 60.561
Scoping language
As used in this subpart, all terms not defined herein shall have the meaning given them in the Act, in subpart A of part 60, or in subpart VV of part 60, and the following terms shall have the specific meanings given them.