In this work, real-time measurements of temperature, width, velocity and crystallinity collected during film casting experiments on polypropylene were adopted as basis for the analysis of heat transfer phenomena taking place during the process. A model describing the heat exchange coefficient, which accounts for natural and forced convection and for radiating exchange between film and surrounding air, and the hot metal die was proposed and tested. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.