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 cooling apparatus for an extruder includes a supply line configured to receive bulk coolant from a supply circuit via an inlet. The supply line delivers supply coolant to the extruder along a flow path. A return line communicates expelled coolant from the extruder, and a circulation line connects the supply line to the return line. The circulation line supplies a recirculated portion of the expelled coolant to the supply line and mixes the bulk coolant with the recirculated portion of the expelled coolant forming the supply coolant. A bypass line connects the supply line to the return line, and a flow control valve connects one of the supply line and the return line to the bypass line. A proportion of the expelled coolant to the bulk coolant forming the supply coolant is adjusted by the flow control valve to control the temperature of the supply coolant.

Disclosed herein are new injection molding-coating devices for the continuous manufacturing of coated pharmaceutical tablets comprising one or more active pharmaceutical ingredients and one or more excipients. Also disclosed herein are methods for the continuous manufacture of coated pharmaceutical tablets using these new devices for the purpose application in the pharmaceutical and drug manufacturing industries.

An extruder plasticization assembly has a plasticization cylinder, at least one thrust and plasticization screw rotatably mounted inside the plasticization cylinder, and a heat-adjustment unit to selectively control a temperature of the plasticization cylinder, the heat-adjustment unit comprises a heating device to heat by electromagnetic induction the plasticization cylinder and a cooling device to cool the plasticization cylinder.