Extruder
What Is Extruder
An extruder is a machine used to shape or form long continuous products by forcing a material through a set of die openings. The material may be plastic, rubber, metal, food, pharmaceuticals, etc. The process of extrusion allows for adaptable shapes and sizes, and it is usually the most efficient technique for producing a large volume of uniform parts. The extrusion technology is utilized in engineering, manufacturing, construction, and other industries.
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Professional Team
Our team has more than 15 years of experience in plastic extruder design and production. This could translate to more effective problem-solving, faster production times, and better quality output.
Safe Packaging
Export standard packaging is used to ensure that all machines arrive at the customer's factory with a brand new look. Safe packaging minimizes the risks of damage, theft, and other forms of loss during transit.
Advanced Processing Machines
We have advanced CNC machine tools, laser cutting machines, laser welding machines, dynamic balancing machines, etc. to ensure high processing accuracy.
Excellent After-sales Service
Our professional after-sales team will provide high-quality after-sales service, including: formula adjustment, machine installation, machine operation and machine operation skills teaching.
Benefits of Extruder
Cost-effective: Extrusion technology is cost-effective in terms of saving money on raw materials, production time, and energy expenditure, which means a lower production cost for the end product.
Versatility: Extrusion technology is very versatile and can be used to produce a range of products with different dimensions, shapes, colors, textures, and functionalities.
Low maintenance requirements: Extruders require minimal maintenance, saving money on maintenance costs.
Customization: Extrusion technology can be used to create customized products that meet specific requirements and demands of the client.
Reduced Waste: Extrusion technology is efficient in terms of material usage, reducing waste to a minimum and maximizing production yield.
Speed of Production: Extrusion technology can produce high volumes of products at a rapid pace, which is essential for companies with high demand for their products.
Continuous Production: Extrusion technology can be used for continuous production, which means a constant output of the product without the need for frequent pauses or breaks in production.
Reduced labor costs: Extruders can perform many automated processes, reducing the need for manual labor, resulting in increased productivity while reducing labor costs.
Improved Product Quality: Extrusion technology can produce high-quality products with consistent and uniform properties, especially when compared to traditional manufacturing techniques.
Sustainability: Extrusion is an environmentally friendly manufacturing process that produces little to no waste, which will help reduce the industry's environmental impact.
There are two major types of extruders; single and twin screw (co-rotating and counter rotating). These come with a wide range of screw diameters (D), lengths (L), and designs. The single screw and co-rotating twin screw are inherently axially open-channel extruders. They can be regarded as drag flow pumps. Their output or degree of fill (if not running at maximum volumetric rate) can be impacted by the pressure flow within the extruder. Closely intermeshing counter-rotating twin screw extruders form closed channels in the intermeshing region. Their output is less vulnerable to the pressure flow within the extruder. As such, they can be considered as positive displacement pumps.
• Single screw extrusion machine normally used to make PE,PP, PPR products such as HDPE pipes, LDPE pipes, PP pipes and PPR pipes. With different mold and downstream lines, the single screw extruder could be used to make all kinds of plastic pipes, plastic profiles and plastic sheet.
• Twin screw extruders ability to process a wide range of materials, including thermoplastics, elastomers, and synthetic rubbers. The twin screws rotate in opposite directions, allowing them to create a strong shear force that effectively mixes the melted materials. Twin screw extruders are an indispensable tool in the manufacturing industry.
These machines provide a means of mixing, melting, and extruding various types of materials to form a desired shape or product. Twin screw extruder offer numerous advantages over single screw extruders, including higher processing capacity, better mixing performance, and greater flexibility in product design.
Precautions for Using Twin Screw Extruder
Pay attention to checking the tightness of the fuselage barrel in advance
Because the internal environment of the whole extruder is high-temperature and airtight, there should not be any leakage, otherwise it is easy to cause air pouring into the extruder and affect the internal temperature rise. Therefore, when using the twin screw extruder, first check whether the internal sealing of the extruder is complete, so as to ensure the internal temperature rise in the subsequent use and the safety of the melting process of plastic products.
Pay attention to low-speed operation before starting the machine
When using the extruder, high-speed operation cannot be carried out at the beginning, because the inner tank of the machine is not preheated before starting lab twin screw extruder, if it is accelerated directly, it is easy to burn the inner tank of the machine in the subsequent use process, which leads to the failure of the operation of the inner tank. Therefore, the machine can be operated at a low speed before start-up.
Pay attention to the installation position of the screw
After installing the machine, pay attention to the installation position of the two screws. Because the screw position of the twin screw extruder determines the efficiency of using the machine and the speed of melting the raw materials. If the two screws are interchanged, it is easy to cause internal operation failure and affect the subsequent cutting and cutting of raw materials. Therefore, check the installation steps and the position of the installation parts in advance.
The reliable lab twin screw extruderneeds to be combined with the correct use method to play its due level. When using the twin screw extruder it is not only necessary to check the tightness of the machine body, but also to make preparations for the start-up of the machine at a low speed, at the same time, it is also necessary to check the installation position of the screw to be successful in subsequent operations.
The Applications of Extruder in Processing Industry
PET PLA PBAT sheet extrusion
Use in producing pet / pla sheets, no need pre-drying crystallization of the energy consumption and adapt to the material for the production of the second, high yield, low energy consumption, high-quality plastics characteristics.
Long glass fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites impregnation extrusion
It is not simply coating fibre tows with polymer, inside impregnation mould individual filaments in the fibre tows are spread apart so each is encapsulated with thermoplastic polymer.
Underwater pelletizing
For example:
• Reinforced modification: PP, PA, PBT, ABS, AS, PC, POM, PPS, PET, PPO, PSF, LCP add. Glass Fiber.
• Filling Modification: PE, PP, EVA etc.+ talcum powder, titanium dioxide, carbon black.
• Cable material: LDPE, HDPE, LLDPE, MDPE, sheath material, insulating material.
• Blend alloy: PC+ABS, PA+ABS, CPE+ABS, PP+EPDM, PA+EPOM, PP+SBS.
• Colour masterbatch: PE, ABS, PS, EVA, PET, PP+pigment, additive etc.
• Flame retardant masterbatch:PP, PA, ABS, EVA, PBT+ flame retardant, additive etc.
• Biodegradable masterbatch: PP, PE, PS+starch, additive etc.
Pipeline
Large size water supply lines for connection to water sources, water treatment plants and drinking water reservoirs, smaller size domestic water supply lines.
Large size mains for gas supply networks. Smaller size domestic gas supply lines.
Various types of panel and underfloor heating systems, hot and cold water installations, and acoustic drainage systems in buildings.
Cable pipe
The cable industry uses plastic tubing almost exclusively for the protection of power lines and cables used for data transmission, control systems and telecommunications systems against external shocks.
Pvc is an extremely versatile material and is generally supplied as a dry (powder) mix, as in the case of pvc processing. The pvc compound is sensitive to shear and high temperatures, so it is gently processed with a parallel or conical twin-screw extruder, depending on the required output and pipe size.
The most commonly used 3-layer tube system is the core foam tube with a foam intermediate layer. The foam layer reduces the total weight of the pipe by 25 %. In addition, recycled material can often be used for the intermediate layer of core foam and solid wall tubes.
3-layer pvc pipes are now being used for a wide range of non-pressure applications such as drainage pipes and cable penetrations.
The extruder production of pe-xa pipe
PE-Xa (Peroxide crosslinked polyethene) has a very high degree of crosslinking and therefore excellent heat resistance. The manufacture of PE-Xa pipes requires a highly specialised process in which a blend of PE powder, liquid peroxide and stabiliser is melted and homogenised in a twin-screw extruder. To prevent early cross-linking, a low process temperature of 160°C is used for the compounding. Afterwards, the melt is moulded into a pipe blank in a pipe die with optimised flow properties and with a very small amount of special coating.
The processing of polyolefin
Polyolefins are generally supplied in the form of pellets. They are particularly suitable for single-screw extrusion because they are only moderately sensitive to shear and thermal stress.
The modified and prilling of material
Extruders can be used for mixing, plasticising and granulating plastics, colouring and blending.
The plastic we normally use is not a pure substance, it is formulated from many materials. In addition, in order to improve the performance of the plastic, various auxiliary materials such as fillers, plasticisers, lubricants, stabilisers, colouring agents, etc. Are added to the polymer in order to become a plastic with good performance.
The Applications of Screw Extruder in Food Industry
The most common type of extruder used in food processing is the co-rotating with fully meshed parallel twin-screw extruder. Screw extruders are mainly used in the food industry for the production of starch expanded food, protein extruded food, expanded feed and as special chemical or biochemical reactors.
Starch puffed food
Under the high temperature and pressure of the extruder, the starch in the grain will gelation. For example, when maize flour is puffed, the degree of starch gelation is above 98%, the crude fat is reduced by 60% or even disappears completely and the water solubility increases by more than 40%. This is why extruders can replace drum dryers for the production of dextrinised starch.
The protein extrusion food
Under high temperature and pressure, plant proteins become organised. Under the action of shear between the screw groove and the barrel wall of the extruder, the proteins are strongly unfolded and arranged in a relatively straight line. The unfolded molecular chains become free and can be reoriented and recombined, thus forming a fibrous state. The fibrous structure is similar to that of lean meat, and when rehydrated has a certain elasticity and chewiness. It can be used to reorganise fish proteins such as minced fish and dried fishmeal to produce food products that mimic the flavour of prawns, snappers and chicken.
Puffing fodder
In feed processing, extruders are mainly used to process whole soybean meal, maize starch, various kinds of cake meal, rice hulls, rice bran, egg shells and fish meal. The feeds produced include floating feeds for fish, high protein shrimp feeds, piglet feeds, chicken feeds feeds for pleasure animals, special aquatic feeds, etc.
How to Choose Extruder
According to the different production materials, product specifications and material consumption of customers, it is necessary to select the diameter of the screw first, and then further select the specification and model of the extruder. We need to consider many factors when selecting extruder. Only by considering these factors can we ensure that the selected equipment meets the use requirements.
Screw
Screw is the main factor affecting the productivity of extruder. The performance of the screw determines the productivity, plasticizing quality, dispersion of additives, melt temperature, power consumption of an extruder. It is the most important part of extruder, which can directly affect the application scope and production efficiency of extruder. The rotation of the screw produces extreme pressure on the plastic, so that the plastic can move, pressurize and obtain part of the heat from friction in the barrel. The plastic can be mixed and plasticized in the moving process of the barrel. When the viscous melt is extruded and flows through the die, it can obtain the required shape and form.
Screw speed
Screw speed not only affects the extrusion speed and amount of material, but also makes the extruder achieve high output and good plasticizing effect. In the past, the main way to increase the output of extruder was to increase the diameter of screw. Although the material extruded per unit time will increase with the increase of screw diameter. However, in addition to extruding materials, the screw also extrudes, stirs and shears the plastic to plasticize it. On the premise of constant screw speed, the mixing and shearing effect of the screw with large diameter and large screw groove is not as good as that of the screw with small diameter. Therefore, modern extruders mainly improve production capacity and product quality by increasing screw speed.
If the screw diameter is unchanged and the screw speed is increased, the torque borne by the screw will increase. When the torque reaches a certain degree, the screw is in danger of being twisted and broken. However, by improving the material and production process of the screw, reasonably designing the screw structure, shortening the length of the feeding section, increasing the flow rate of the material and reducing the extrusion resistance, the torque can be reduced and the bearing capacity of the screw can be improved.
Barrel structure
The improvement of the barrel structure is mainly to improve the temperature control of the feeding section. Whether the temperature of the water jacket through the barrel is reasonable is very important for the stable work of the extruder and efficient extrusion. If the temperature of the water jacket is too high, the raw material will soften prematurely, and even the surface of the raw material particles will melt, which will weaken the friction between the raw material and the inner wall of the barrel, thus reducing the extrusion thrust and extrusion volume. However, the temperature should not be too low. The barrel with too low temperature will make the screw rotation resistance too large, which will cause difficulty in starting the motor or instability of speed when exceeding the bearing capacity of the motor. Advanced sensor and control technology are used to monitor and control the water jacket of the extruder, so as to automatically control the temperature within the range of the best process parameters.
Reducer
On the premise of basically the same structure, the manufacturing cost of the reducer is roughly proportional to its overall size and weight. The large shape and weight of the reducer means that more materials are consumed in manufacturing, and the bearings used are also relatively large, which increases the manufacturing cost.
For extruders with the same screw diameter, high-speed and efficient extruders consume more energy than conventional extruders, double the motor power, and correspondingly increase the base of the reducer. But high screw speed means low reduction ratio. For the reducer of the same size, compared with the reducer with large reduction ratio, the gear module increases and the capacity of the reducer to bear load also increases.
Motor drive
Extruders with the same screw diameter, high-speed and efficient extruders consume more energy than conventional extruders, and the motor power also needs to be increased. During the normal use of the extruder, the motor drive system and heating and cooling system are always working. The energy consumption of transmission parts such as motor and reducer accounts for 77% of the energy consumption of the whole machine; Heating and cooling account for 22.8% of the input energy consumption of the whole machine; Instrument electrical accounts for 0.8%.
The extruder with the same screw diameter is equipped with a larger motor, which seems to consume electricity, but if calculated by output, the high-speed and efficient extruder is more energy-saving than the conventional extruder. If the power consumption of heaters, fans and other devices on the extruder is also considered, the difference in energy consumption is also greater. Extruders with large screw diameters should be equipped with larger heaters, and the heat dissipation area will also increase. Therefore, for the two extruders with the same capacity, the new extruder with high conversion efficiency has a smaller barrel, the heater consumes less energy than the traditional large screw extruder, and saves a lot of electricity in heating.
In terms of heater power, the power consumption of the extruder heater is mainly in the preheating stage. During normal production, the heat of material melting is mainly converted by consuming the electric energy of the motor. The conductivity of the heater is very low and the power consumption is not large.
Shock absorption measures
High torque extruders are prone to vibration. Excessive vibration is very harmful to the normal use of the equipment and the service life of the parts. Therefore, multiple measures must be taken to reduce the vibration of the extruder and improve the service life of the equipment.
The motor shaft and the high-speed shaft of the reducer are the most susceptible parts of the extruder to vibration. First of all, the high rotation extruder should be equipped with high-quality motor and reducer to avoid becoming the vibration source due to the vibration of motor rotor and reducer high-speed shaft. Secondly, we should design a good transmission system. Pay attention to improving the rigidity, weight and quality of processing and assembly of the frame, which is also an important link to reduce the vibration of the extruder. A good extruder does not need to be fixed with anchor bolts when in use, and there is basically no vibration. This depends on the sufficient rigidity and self weight of the frame. In addition, we should strengthen the quality control of the processing and assembly of various components.
Instruments
The production operation of extrusion can only be reflected by instruments. Therefore, precise, intelligent and easy to operate instruments and meters will make us better understand their internal conditions, so that production can achieve better and faster results.
Co extrusion is an extruder process used to obtain a product that combines two textures: One material is extruded and continuously filled with another to form a single product.
● High quality mono-layer extruder coatings in larger varieties of line speeds and widths.
● Use of lower cost materials for filling purpose, assists in saving on the amount of qualitative resins.
Capability of making multi-layer as well as multi-functional structures that too in a single pass.
Reduction in the number of steps required in general extruder process provides targeted performance with the use of definite polymers in particular layers.
Reduction in setup and trim scrap potential for use of a recycle layer.
Extruder produces a plastic film containing two or more distinct plastic layers without requiring any intermediate steps—in contrast to lamination, where two or more plastic films are produced first, and then adhered together.
Extruder is the process of forming an extrudate composed of more than one thermoplastic melt stream. The process came about because some service demands, particularly from the packaging industry, could not be satisfied by a single polymer although they could be met by a combination of polymers.
Separate extruders are required for each distinct material in the Extruder. The process has two variations, depending on the point at which the separate melt streams are brought together.
Extruder is the process of forming an extrudate composed of more than one thermoplastic melt stream. The process came about because some service demands, particularly from the packaging industry, could not be satisfied by a single polymer although they could be met by a combination of polymers.
Separate extruders are required for each distinct material in the Extruder. The process has two variations, depending on the point at which the separate melt streams are brought together.
Extruder was first practiced in the production of cast film and is now also used in blown film and sheet extrusion. The intention is normally to produce a laminar structure in which each layer contributes a key property to the overall product performance.
Separate extruders are required for each distinct material in the Extruder. The process has two variations, depending on the point at which the separate melt streams are brought together.
Company Profile
We are a professional plastic extruder manufacturer in China. Based on the principle of being honest with customers and being responsible for product quality, we are committed to producing high-quality equipment with low energy consumption, high output, and stable operation.
We have 4 local office in South Asia, Middle east, and Africa and Europe, by providing high quality plastic extruders and good after sales service, our extruder machines are highly recognized by our customers.
Ultimate Faq Guide to Extruder