High Specific Mechanical Energy extruder screw assemblies (14, 88, 98) and complete extruders (10, 86, 96) are provided, which include wide-flight intermediate screw sections (104) having axial flight widths greater than the flight widths of the inlet and outlet screw sections (102, 106) on opposite sides of the intermediate sections (104). The intermediate sections (104) provide increased friction and shear serving to enhance the SMEs imparted to comestible food materials during processing thereof.

Methods, apparatuses, systems, and techniques relate to an extruder unit for producing preforms with a tube-like wall from a polymer melt and an associated extrusion process. The extruder unit has a receptacle for an exchangeable dispensing tool, it furthermore comprises at least two different and alternately usable profiling devices. These profiling devices have outlet-side fastening structures, which correspond in the various profiling devices and form the receptacle for the exchangeable dispensing tool, so that the profiling devices can be connected alternately to the same dispensing tool. In this way, any dispensing tool, depending on the wish of the customer, can be operated with different profiling devices, in particular, on the one hand, to carry out profiling by mandrel body movement or profiling by nozzle body movement.

Methods, apparatuses, systems, and techniques relate to a tube-forming device for an extruder unit or an extrusion device and a tube-forming process. The tube-forming device comprises at least one shaping sleeve, which is designed to shape a supplied stream of polymer melt from a substantially strand-like cross section into a tubular cross section. The shaping sleeve has a guiding passage embedded in the sleeve wall, such that the guiding passage is a cavity which lies within the sleeve wall and, in the radial direction of the shaping sleeve, is enclosed in a sealed manner with respect to the outer surfaces.

An extruder screw-handling device for handling a screw of a food or land-or-sea-animal-feed extruder, the device being suitable for fully extracting an extruder screw from an extruder barrel, wherein the device has a horizontally arranged top section, a locking screw assembly and a guiding element. The present invention is furthermore related to a method of extracting an extruder screw from a food or land-or-sea-animal-feed extruder using the device.

A mixing attachment for a screw, in particular an extruder screw in an extruder or in an injection-molding machine, comprising an essentially rotationally symmetrical lateral surface, the diameter of which increases from a first end to a second end of the lateral surface, and a securing device, which is provided in the region of the first end of the lateral surface, for securing the mixing attachment at a downstream end of the screw, wherein the lateral surface is perforated by a plurality of apertures, in particular bores.

A screw element (100) for an extrusion machine is provided. The screw element (100) includes a first section (200) and a second section. The first section (200 has a first core (212) with a plurality of facets (214) connected to each other along splines (216). The facets (214) and splines (216) extend longitudinally along the screw element (100). The facets (214) and splines (216) can be helically-shaped. The first core (212) increases in diameter in a continuous manner along the direction of flow of material. The first and second sections (200, 300) include one or more helically-shaped flights (218,219) wrapped around the longitudinal axis of the screw element (100).

A kneading apparatus having a kneading unit made up of a plurality of segment parts detachably mounted on a shaft disposed in the barrel includes a first segment part having a first length L1 related to an outer diameter D, a second segment part having a second length L2 shorter than the first length L1, and a third segment part having a third length L3 longer than the first length L1; the first length L1 is [the outer diameter D?a coefficient a]; the second length L2 is [the first length L1/a coefficient b]; the third length L3 is [the first length L1?the coefficient b]; the third length L3 is [L1+L2]; and the kneading unit has a segment pattern made up of a plurality of segment parts and mounted on the shaft interchangeably with another segment pattern.

High Specific Mechanical Energy extruder screw assemblies (14, 88, 98) and complete extruders (10, 86, 96) are provided, which include wide-flight intermediate screw sections (104) having axial flight widths greater than the flight widths of the inlet and outlet screw sections (102, 106) on opposite sides of the intermediate sections (104). The intermediate sections (104) provide increased friction and shear serving to enhance the SMEs imparted to comestible food materials during processing thereof.

A planetary roller extruder. The abstract of the disclosure is submitted herewith as required by 37 C.F.R. 1.72(b). As stated in 37 C.F.R. 1.72(b): A brief abstract of the technical disclosure in the specification must commence on a separate sheet, preferably following the claims, under the heading Abstract of the Disclosure. The purpose of the abstract is to enable the Patent and Trademark Office and the public generally to determine quickly from a cursory inspection the nature and gist of the technical disclosure. The abstract shall not be used for interpreting the scope of the claims. Therefore, any statements made relating to the abstract are not intended to limit the claims in any manner and should not be interpreted as limiting the claims in any manner.

A screw machine includes an inductive heating device for the processing of material to be processed. The inductive heating device is used to heat the material in a heating zone. In the heating zone, at least one housing portion is made of an electromagnetically transparent material at least partly, the material being non-magnetic and electrically non-conductive, whereas at least one treatment element shaft is made of an electrically conductive material at least partly. During the processing of the material, the inductive heating device generates an alternating magnetic field that produces eddy current losses in the at least one treatment element shaft, the eddy current losses leading to a temperature increase of the at least one treatment element shaft. The material is heated on the at least one heated treatment element shaft, in particular until it melts. The screw machine allows a simple and efficient melting of the material, with the result that a mechanical energy input and a resulting wear of the screw machine can be reduced significantly.