Co-rotating screws and/or extruders are used in many branches of industry for producing, preparing and/or processing highly viscous materials. They find a wide variety of applications especially in the plastics, rubber and food industries.
Co-rotating twin-screw machines usually have modular configurations and are thus quite flexible for adapting to changing tasks and material properties. Well-founded knowledge of machines, processes and material behavior are required in order to design twin-screw extruder for economically successful operations.
This book provides basic engineering knowledge regarding twin-screw machines; it lists the most important machine-technical requirements and provides examples based on actual practice. Better understanding of the processes is emphasized as this is a prerequisite for optimizing twin-screw designs and operating them efficiently. Besides basic functions, such as compounding, the book focuses on:
- the historical development of twin-screws
- the geometry of the screw elements (fundamentals, basic patents, patents overview)
- material properties and material behavior in the machine
- fundamentals of feed behavior, pressure build-up and power input
- examples of applications for various processing tasks
- compounding: tasks, applications, processing zones
- potential and limits of modeling
- scaling-up various processes
- machine design incl. drives and materials
Klemens Kohlgrüber
Dr. Klemens Kohlgrüber undertook a metalworking apprenticeship and completed further training as a mechanical engineer in Cologne. He studied mechanical engineering in Wuppertal, followed by a diploma and doctorate at RWTH Aachen University. From 1986 to 2015, he worked for Bayer AG, among other things as Head of High Viscosity, Mixing, and Reactor Technology. At the same time, he gave lectures for several years at the University of Dortmund for chemists in the master’s program on polymer processing/preparation. For several years he was head of the High Viscosity Technology working group of the Forschungsgesellschaft Verfahrenstechnik (German Research Association for Process Engineering) and he is a former member of the Association of German Engineers (VDI) advisory board for plastics processing technology. Dr. Kohlgrüber also leads annual VDI seminars on extruders.
Compoundieren Doppelschneckenextruder Extrusion Kunststoffe Polymerschmelzen Strömungssimulation