Do You Know About Twin-screw Extruders?

Extrusion converts viscous substances into high-quality structured products through precise control of processing conditions. Raw materials can be solids (powders, granules, flour), liquids, slurries, or even gases. Once extruded, these materials become plastic compounds, chemically modified polymers, textured food and feed products, cellulose pulp and other products. Extruder is one of the types of plastic machinery.

The screw extruder relies on the pressure and shear force generated by the rotation of the screw, so that the material can be fully plasticized and evenly mixed, and then formed through the die. Plastic extruders can be basically classified into twin-screw extruders, single-screw extruders, and rare multi-screw extruders and non-screw extruders. Twin-screw extruders can transport, compress, mix, cook, shear, heat, cool, pump and shape with high flexibility.

1. What is a twin-screw extruder?

The range of twin screw extruders is expertly designed, ingeniously constructed and rigorously tested to handle the most challenging and demanding industrial applications requiring kneading, dispersive mixing, distributive mixing and reactive extrusion. A twin screw extruder is a machine consisting of two intermeshing, co-rotating screws mounted on splined shafts in a closed barrel. The screws are tight and self-wiping, eliminating stagnant areas along the length of the entire process section. This results in high efficiency and perfect self-cleaning. Twin screw extruders can be used in the polymer, chemical and food industries for compounding various consumer products such as: adhesives, sealants, mastic, soaps/detergents, plastics, chemicals.

2. What is the difference between single-screw and twin-screw extruders?

A single-screw extruder is a single-screw machine, while a twin-screw extruder, as the name suggests, has two screws. In single-screw extruders, the granular material stays in the extruder longer and production times are slower. Twin-screw extruder has the following advantages: reduced energy usage; excellent compounding ability; easy feeding; excellent venting ability.

3. What is the purpose of the twin-screw extruder?

Twin-screw extruders are used to extrude viscous substances into high-quality structured products through precise control of processing conditions. Once extruded, these materials become plastic compounds, chemically modified polymers, textured food and feed products, cellulose pulp and other products.