An inventive process for the production of a composite polymer material is provided allowing for the preparation of a composite polymer material with high filler content which may be used as a masterbatch.

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.

A pump assembly for use in an additive manufacturing system includes a viscosity pump having a first end and a second end wherein the first end has a cross sectional area greater than a cross sectional area of the second end. The viscosity pump has a conical shaped inner surface defining a pump chamber, an inlet proximate the first end and an outlet proximate the second end. The viscosity pump includes an impeller having an axis of rotation, where the impeller has a shaft positioned through the first end of the first housing and into the pump chamber. The impeller includes a distal tip-end at a distal end of the shaft wherein the impeller is configured to be axially displaced within the pump chamber of the viscosity pump parallel to the axis of rotation. An actuator is coupled to a proximal end of the impeller, wherein the actuator is configured to move the impeller parallel to the axis of rotation.

An inventive process for the production of a composite polymer material is provided allowing for the preparation of a composite polymer material with high filler content which may be used as a masterbatch.

A method of fabricating an injection-molded component is provided. The method includes the step of introducing pellets into an injection barrel of an injection molding machine. The pellets include a first supercritical fluid. The pellets are plasticized in the injection barrel and a second supercritical fluid is injected into the plasticized pellets. The second supercritical fluid and the plasticized pellets are mixed to form a mixed material. The mixed material is injected into a mold.

Disclosed is a cold-water soluble starch and a process for preparing same. Generally, the process comprises providing a hydroxyalkyl starch and applying a shearing force to the starch in an extruder in the presence of moisture, the force and the moisture each being sufficient to gelatinize at least substantially all of the granules of the starch to thereby form a sheared starch. The starch is heated to its gelatinization temperature after the starch has passed partially through the barrel of the extruder, with the moisture being maintained at a level sufficiently high to allow gelatinization but sufficiency low to protect the starch from becoming too sticky to extrude. The extruded starch product thus formed may be used in connection with a number of film-forming, coating, and other applications.

A method for controlling temperature rise in divided heating zones of a barrel of a molding machine includes: setting tentative target temperatures for the respective heating zones; simultaneously raising temperatures in the heating zones to the set tentative target temperatures; when temperatures in the heating zones reach the respective tentative target temperatures, selecting a master zone from the heating zones, and selecting, as a slave zone, a heating zone which is other than the master zone among the heating zones; and after temperatures in the heating zones reach the respective tentative temperatures, raising the temperatures in the master zone and the slave zone to respective final target temperatures according to an attainment degree of temperature rise in the master zone.

The present invention provides a method for manufacturing an imitation wood and is featured by adjusting the temperature of a discharge outlet before or during conveyance of thermoplastic elastomers in a helical section of a screw extruder to be lower than the temperature of a tail end of the helical section, such that the viscosity of the thermoplastic elastomers in the discharge outlet increases and the flow velocity reduces at the outlet during the discharge process at the discharge outlet. Thus, the thermoplastic elastomers flow in a direction opposite to the discharge direction and rub, resulting in marks of back-flow and rubbing. During the process of back-flow and rubbing, the plastics will be pulled and break along the rubber elastomers and become filament-like, thereby generating filaments similar to wood. Then, the foaming blank material is squeezed out of the discharge outlet and is forced into a molding machine to proceed with planarity trimming, and the output material is cooled with a preset cold-bath tank of the molding machine, providing adjustment of different densities of imitation wood, such that the imitation wood produced by the present invention has high simulation of wood.

A method for production of a molded article from a base substance in a device for mixing of the base substance with a solvent is provided. The method includes mixing a base substance to produce a molding solution with the solvent and at least partially removing the solvent from the mixture; and feeding the molding solution to a device for further processing of a product and diluting the molding solution before further processing. In embodiments, the diluent is introduced to the device before a discharge device and/or in the discharge device.

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.