Apparatus and methods for manufacturing compostable, biodegradable drink straws from polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) material are disclosed herein. Such apparatus may include a hopper that contains raw PHA material, an extruder that receives the raw PHA material from the hopper and produces extruded PHA material, one or more waters baths that cool the extruded PHA material, a puller that pulls a tubular stream of PHA material through the system, and a cutter that is configured to cut the stream of PHA material into finished straws. The finished straws may be soil- and marine-biodegradable, as well as home- and industrial-compostable.

There is a lead casing for pencil for writing, drawing, marking, plotting, and/or coloring made of a composition having, by weight relative to the total weight of the lead casing for pencil: a) from 50 to 95% of a mixture of polylactic acid and polybutylene adipate terephtalate in a weight ratio polylactic acid/polybutylene adipate terephtalate ranging from 60/40 to 90/10, and b) from 5 to 40% of mineral fillers chosen in the group consisting of shellfish shells, more specifically oyster shells, and even more specifically milled oyster shells.

There is also a pencil including the lead casing for the pencil of the disclosure, for writing, drawing, marking, plotting, and/or coloring as well as a method for manufacturing such a pencil.

A subject of the invention is a process for surfacing or resurfacing a metal part by laser-assisted deposition of a filler material in order to produce an abradable coating of the part, the process being characterized in that the filler material is an iron-based powder comprising vanadium, chromium, nickel, boron, silicon and carbon, in that the laser has an operational wavelength ranging from 900 nm to 1100 nm and in that it comprises the irradiation of the part by a laser beam such that the specific energy (SE) varies from 5 J/mg to 10 J/mg and such that the linear density (LD) varies from 25 mg/mm to 55 mg/mm. Another subject of the invention is the surfaced or resurfaced metal part. Another subject of the invention is a pre-alloy in iron-based powder form, comprising vanadium, chromium, nickel, boron, silicon and carbon.

Disclosed are a microwave-enhanced extruder facility and an organic reaction module. The microwave-enhanced extruder facility includes a screw extruder and a microwave generator. The screw extruder includes a feeding module and an organic reaction module. The feeding module includes a plurality of conveying blocks connected to each other. First barrels are clamped in the first conveying blocks, and screws are arranged in the first barrels. The organic reaction module is connected to the microwave generator and includes a second conveying block, and the microwave generator is connected to the second conveying block. The second conveying block is provided with two clamping plates and a frame connecting the two clamping plates. A second barrel is clamped in the second conveying block. Waveguide tubes are connected to the upper and lower ends of the second conveying blocks respectively.

An extruder has a barrel extending from a feed inlet end to an extruder outlet end. The barrel has an inner surface, an outer surface, and a wall thickness between the inner and outer surfaces. The extruder also has at least one heating member positioned provided on the barrel; a screw drive motor drivingly connected to a rotatably mounted screw positioned within the barrel, whereby the screw is rotatable at various revolutions per minute (RPM); and a controller is operably connected to the screw drive motor to adjust the RPM of the screw based upon a temperature of material passing through and/or being extruded from the barrel. Methods for operating an extruder filling a mold are also provided.

A continuous cycle system for moulding single objects from plastic material, including: an extruder including a cylinder extending along a longitudinal axis (L), a screw rotating inside the cylinder about the longitudinal axis (L), the screw having a core and a thread externally coupled to the core and heaters coupled to the cylinder; a moulding machine, configured to receive as input the flow of liquid plastic material from the extruder and including a plurality of moulds, each having a first and a second half mould movable relative to each other between an open position and a closed position.

A continuous cycle system for moulding single objects from plastic material, including: an extruder including a cylinder extending along a longitudinal axis (L), a screw rotating inside the cylinder about the longitudinal axis (L), the screw having a core and a thread externally coupled to the core and heaters coupled to the cylinder; a moulding machine, configured to receive as input the flow of liquid plastic material from the extruder and including a plurality of moulds, each having a first and a second half mould movable relative to each other between an open position and a closed position.

A twin screw extruder (10) for producing a fiber-reinforced resin composition, which is obtained by charging the extruder with a thermoplastic resin and reinforcing fibers in roving form and the reinforcing fibers being fibrillated/cut and being dispersed/kneaded into the thermoplastic resin, comprises: a plate-shaped blade (15), which protrudes from the inner surface of a cylinder (11) and faces a screw (20) and the longitudinal direction of which faces the axial direction of the cylinder; and a height adjustment means (16) for adjusting the gap between the blade (15) and the screw (20).

In one embodiment, a method of forming an extruded board includes mixing a resin and a foaming agent, melting the mixed resin and foaming agent to form a uniformly colored extrudate, differentially expanding voids formed from the foaming agent within the uniformly colored extrudate by passing the uniformly colored extrudate through a breaker plate, forming a board with the differentially expanded voids and uniformly colored extrudate, and forming lightened portions on an outermost surface of the formed board.

The application relates to a plasticizing unit with a cylinder and a screw that is rotatably mounted in the cylinder and has a screw section which is designed as a shearing section and in which a blocking web encircling the screw core in a helical manner and a main screw thread enclosed by the blocking web are provided. A shearing web runs in the main screw thread parallel to the blocking web at a lower height than the blocking web. In this manner, two screw threads are produced which run parallel to each other and are separated by the shearing web. The threads are designed in the form of wave screw threads. Each wave screw thread is equipped with one or more wave peaks with a surface which is designed in the form of a plateau and forms a wave peak shearing surface, wherein the wave peak shearing surface is located at the same height as the surface of the shearing web in the region. The shearing web surface section which lies in the region of a wave peak shearing surface constitutes a shearing web sharing surface. A wave peak shearing surface and a shearing web shearing surface together form a total shearing surface. A specified total shearing surface together with the inner wall of the cylinder forms a shearing gap in accordance with a shearing gap size specified for the total shearing surface.