A screw extruder which extrudes a kneaded material includes a screw having a helical flight provided on an outer peripheral surface of a shaft portion thereof, and a chamber housing the screw. In the screw extruder, a flight thickening portion is provided at a part which is a tip portion of the flight and is on the reverse side of a rotation direction of the flight.

An extruder screw includes a screw main body, conveyance portions, barrier portions, and paths. The raw materials, the conveyance of which is limited by the barrier portions, flow in from the entrance. The raw materials flowing in from the entrance flow through the paths in an opposite direction to a conveyance direction of the conveyance portions. The exit is opened in the outer circumferential surface of the screw main body at a position on an upstream side in the conveyance direction in the conveyance portions in which the entrance is opened.

The present disclosure relates to a process for preparing granules from an input material or a powder material. The process comprises feeding the input material for granulation in the processor using one or more powder feeders, introducing steam as a granulation activating agent in the processor, granulating the input material in presence of the steam to form granules, and optionally collecting the granules from a discharge zone of the processor, wherein feed rate of the steam into the processor is determined based on feed rate of the input material into the processor. A co-rotating twin-screw processor for preparing granules is also disclosed.

A continuous mixer includes a barrel with a hollow interior, and a pair of mixing rotors housed in the barrel and that rotate in mutually different directions, each mixing rotor including a mixing portion with plural mixing flights formed about an axial center of the mixing rotor and projecting radially outward. The mixing rotors have a center distance therebetween smaller than a rotation outer diameter of each of the respective mixing flights. An inter-rotor clearance, which is the smallest clearance between the mixing portions at each rotation phase of the mixing rotors in a cross section perpendicular to axial directions of the both mixing rotors, has a dimension allowing an extensional flow to be generated in a material passing through the inter-rotor clearance. The continuous mixer can reliably and efficiently mix a material having a large viscosity difference between a dispersed phase and a matrix phase.

An extrusion equipment adapted for supercritical foaming and mixing of a raw material includes a mixing unit, an injection unit for injection of supercritical fluid into the mixing unit, and an extrusion unit for extrusion of the raw material. The mixing unit includes a tube for input of the raw material, and a propelling screw rod and an auxiliary screw rod that are disposed side by side in the tube and that cooperatively compress and propel the raw material. The auxiliary screw rod rotates at a speed at least twice that of the propelling screw rod and in a direction opposite to that of the propelling screw rod.

A screw extruder with rollers includes a screw which extrudes a material; a casing which houses the screw and which is provided with a charging port for the material; and a pair of an upper roller and a lower roller which are arranged in front of the casing and mold the material extruded by the screw into a sheet, in which one of the upper roller and the lower roller has both end portions in an axial direction, and a main body portion between the both end portions, and a cross-section of the main body portion perpendicular to the axial direction has an oval shape.

A process for extruding plastic compositions is provided. The process comprises providing a multi-screw extruder with screw elements and conveying, kneading, mixing, degassing or compounding the plastic compositions in the multi-screw extruder using the screw elements.

A dry granulation process using a twin-screw extruder for granulating a powder mixture which includes at least one active ingredient and at least one carrier. The process includes steps of kneading the powder mixture in the screw barrel of the twin-screw extruder at a barrel temperature below a melting point of the at least one active ingredient and a melting point or a glass transition temperature of the at least one carrier to provide a kneaded powder mixture, and extruding the kneaded powder mixture to form granules. Granules and tablets produced using the dry granulation process in the twin-screw extruder are also provided.

A process for preparing granules is disclosed. The process comprises the steps of feeding the input material for granulation in a processor using one or more powder feeders, introducing steam as a granulation activating agent in the processor, granulating the input material in presence of the steam to form granules, and collecting the granules from a discharge zone of the processor. A co-rotating twin-screw processor for preparing granules is also disclosed.

A dry granulation process using a twin-screw extruder for granulating a powder mixture which includes at least one active ingredient and at least one carrier. The process includes steps of kneading the powder mixture in the screw barrel of the twin-screw extruder at a barrel temperature below a melting point of the at least one active ingredient and a melting point or a glass transition temperature of the at least one carrier to provide a kneaded powder mixture, and extruding the kneaded powder mixture to form granules. Granules and tablets produced using the dry granulation process in the twin-screw extruder are also provided.