A co-rotating twin screw extruder for forming fragments is disclosed. The extruder comprises of an intake zone for receiving one or more excipient(s) suitable for oral dosage or one or more excipient(s) suitable for oral dosage along with one or more active pharmaceutical ingredient, a melt zone for softening at least one excipient to form a viscous mass or melt and a fragmenting zone for fragmenting and cooling the viscous mass into cooled fragments and an extruder outlet for recovering the cooled fragments from the extruder.

In an embodiment, a method of dewatering a wet polymer composition comprises introducing the wet polymer composition via a polymer feed location to a powder conveying section of an extruder; wherein the wet polymer composition comprises greater than or equal to 1 wt % of water based on the total weight of the wet polymer composition; venting the water through a conveying section vent to form a dry polymer composition; melt kneading the dry polymer composition in a melt kneading section of the extruder to form a polymer melt; conveying the polymer melt in a melt conveying section of the extruder; and adding an additive in one or both of the powder conveying section and the melt conveying section.

A screw to be used in an extruder has a modular structure so that it can be adapted very flexibly to new tasks and conditions. The modular structure of a screw contains a rod-shaped mandrel and individual screw components which are slidable onto the mandrel. The components perform the classic functions of the screw during the extrusion process, such as conveying, kneading, mixing or shearing of the plastic to be guided into and through the plant.

For transmission of the occurring high torque, the components are connected with the mandrel so that they positively engage and are axially braced in addition. The connection is to be performed such that it can be released by simple means.

An extruder (20) is specifically designed for the production of animal feed products (e.g., aquatic feeds) containing substantial quantities of low-cost fibrous materials, such as rice byproducts, at high production rates. The extruder (20) includes an elongated barrel (22) with a screw assembly (24) within the barrel and an endmost extrusion die assembly (34). The screw assembly (24) includes an inlet screw assembly (42) and a processing screw assembly (44). The assembly (44) includes screw components (50-56) of differential pitch to present a long pitch inlet section (64) and a tight pitch discharge section (68). Materials passing through the screw assembly (24) are successively subjected to high levels of steam injection (STE) followed by high levels of friction and shear (SME), so that the STE/SME ratio is at least about 6/1.

The invention relates to a method for degassing elastomer-containing media, such as elastomer solutions and dispersions in particular, and degassing devices (1) for carrying out said method.

A manufacturing apparatus of a rubber member includes an extruder that kneads and feeds a rubber material; a mouthpiece that discharges the rubber material supplied from the extruder; a support member that has a support surface opposing the mouthpiece; a rubber collection chamber that is formed between the mouthpiece and the support surface, that collects the rubber material discharged from the mouthpiece, and that has an opening in a front movement direction of the support surface with respect to the mouthpiece; and a shutter that opens and closes the opening. A plate-like rubber member is molded using the rubber material discharged from the mouthpiece onto the support surface by relatively moving the support surface and the mouthpiece.

A method for producing thermoplastic elastomer is disclosed and comprises the step of: blending a mixture including particles of vulcanized rubber material and a molten thermoplastic material such that the rubber material is subjected to mechanical shearing forces and the surfaces of the rubber particles undergo homolytic bond scission to form chains of free radicals which cross-link with the thermoplastic material. Apparatus for carrying out the method, elastomers produced by the method and articles produced from the elastomers are also disclosed.

In a method and an apparatus for increasing the intrinsic viscosity of a polycondensate melt at negative pressure, the melt enters a chamber, in which a negative pressure of less than 20 mbar prevails, through a perforated plate or a screen having openings with a diameter of less than 0.5 mm. The melt passes through this chamber in free fall in thin threads and remains in a reservoir beneath the chamber for at least one minute. The melt is moved constantly in the reservoir, and discharged from the reservoir, by a helical mixing and discharge part.

A pressure device has a rifled barrel, a rifled end cap, a section clamped to the barrel, a circular flange welded to a threaded male pipe connection, a plate with holes or a cone, a female cap receiving the plate and aligning the holes to the rifling in the barrel, and the flange threadily engaging the cap, securing the plate. The rifled barrel provides shearing, increased pressure, and higher temperatures upon the passing crop residue. The increased surface area of the rifling grooves increases temperature and pressure between the crop residue and the barrel wall. The rifling, when misaligned, creates a pressure chamber that further breaks down the molecules in the crop residue. The crop residue then enters a popper device. The pressure in the popper device forces the crop residue through the holes of plate or around an encased cone, relieving excess pressure and producing a nutritional animal feed.

A method for forming a graphene-reinforced polymer matrix composite is disclosed. The method includes distributing graphite microparticles into a molten thermoplastic polymer phase; and applying a succession of shear strain events to the molten polymer phase so that the molten polymer phase exfoliates the graphite successively with each event until at least 50% of the graphite is exfoliated to form a distribution in the molten polymer phase of single- and multi-layer graphene nanoparticles less than 50 nanometers thick along the c-axis direction.