Process Engineering
Discover the modular design of the ENTEX Planetary Roller Extruder with its mechanically controlled process zones and individual temperature-controlled zones. Our machine will offer you targeted and efficient regulation of individual phases of the extrusion process in conjunction with particularly material-friendly compounding.
PRECISION EXTRUSION
This system’s combination of a targeted, process-oriented feed of various fluids and solid materials in defined process zones with mechanical configurability and efficient tempering allows it to conduct gentle, low-shear compounding to produce extrudates with outstanding homogeneity. Every single step in the process can be controlled individually.
Materials with different physical properties can be mixed and melted in separate tempering and compounding zones in the PRE. The processing section’s modular system allows for a process-oriented material feed that can be individually configured to suit the specific requirements of the process.
Thanks to continuous rolling out of the extrudate, efficient tempering through large contact surface areas for energy exchange enables rapid melting and precise temperature control. Adaptable planetary spindle configurations make it possible to control feed and mixing behaviour, as well as the degree of rolling out and the dwell time of the extrudate.
The process section can be systematically configured to convey defined quantities of various formulation components to specific process zones during the compounding process. Be it a wide range of pellets, powders or materials with very low bulk densities (e.g. aerosols, glass or fabric fibres), solid materials can be dosed into the ongoing processes in large volumes and extremely small quantities alike. In the same way, fluids of different viscosities can be injected and mixed into a process at varying points according to the formulation.
Feeding materials into process zones with individual tempering and configuration of the kneading and retention elements allows even complex compounding and reactive extrusion processes to be performed. Thanks to its wide range of possibilities for feeding a variety of materials, the Planetary Roller Extruder is a powerful compounding aggregate suitable for a broad range of applications in many areas of industry.
Gaseous extrudate inclusions, including air, steam and volatile degradation products, are generally detrimental to product quality. Effective degassing makes it possible to almost entirely remove volatile substances from the extrudate, something that generally has a positive impact on product properties while decisively improving product quality.
The targeted configuration possibilities offered by the modular Planetary Roller Extruder system allow extrudates to be degassed at varying points of the extrusion process to great effect – even complex degassing processes can be implemented.
In the same way, solvent residues and aromatic compounds from products can be minimised and residual monomers and by-products of reactive extrusion processes extracted. The utilisation of suitable vacuum pumps makes it possible to achieve degassing results for volatile substances of
< 1,000 ppm in a vacuum of < 1 mbar.
The PRE can precisely cool large volumes of tempered melts of different viscosities in a continuous process with short throughput times. At the same time, the PRE is a particularly efficient heat exchanger and dynamic mixer.
Its outstanding cooling and tempering capacity is made possible by the extremely thin walls between the tempering medium and the extrudate and its full-surface fluid-based tempering.
Thanks to the enormous contact surface areas for energy exchange provided by the tempered toothing with which the system continuously rolls out the extrudate, the system is able to cool even sensitive materials within a predefined time period – gently and effectively with a homogeneous temperature distribution.
It is possible to generate temperature differences in the extrudate with a ∆T of as much as 150 °C within one or two process zones.
The dwell time of the extrudate in the individual process zones of the Planetary Roller Extruder can be regulated as required by adjusting various parameters. Depending on the specific material or process requirements, individually adjustable temperature-controlled zones and replaceable planetary spindles of different types, stop and dispersion rings in the process section can be controlled such that the melt passes through the individual process zones in different lengths of time.
In this way, materials can be subjected to specific mechanical and thermal stresses as required, something that is particularly useful when working with complex compounding or reaction processes for sensitive materials or with complex formulations.
Systematic control of the dwell time is but one of the many unique features that allow Planetary Roller Extruders to deliver homogeneous and material-friendly compounding.
The modular design of the ENTEX Planetary Roller Extruder with its mechanically controlled process zones and individual temperature-controlled zones enables the targeted and efficient regulation of individual phases of reaction processes and material-friendly compounding of materials with different physical and chemical properties. By systematically combining planetary spindles, it is possible to create sufficient spatial volumes to feed even large volumes of fillers into the ongoing process or to generate the expansion space required for foaming and degassing processes, for example.
The intake of large quantities of fluids or solid materials without premixing processes is only made possible by the Planetary Roller Extruder’s individually configurable process zones, something that makes this system the ideal compounding aggregate for systematic reaction processes. On account of its unique operating principle and the enormous bandwidth of possibilities it affords for systematically regulating and controlling processes, the Planetary Roller Extruder is significantly superior to other compounding systems, particularly when it comes to reactive processes.
We are looking forward to hear from you.
– Your ENTEX Team Germany
