Extrusion material drying

The electrical properties of ceramic insulators are in no way impaired by the addition of PEG. Usually, as little as 1% PEG 20,000 is sufficient to plasticize the body adequately for extrusion. Spray-dried oxide ceramic material requires a PEG content of 4% on average, while for injection molding the additions may be considerably higher without adversely affecting the electrical properties. 

The investigation was carried out on commercial low density and high density polyethylenes. These materials were bought from Cadillac Plastic and Chemical Co. in the form of 1 in. diameter melt-extruded rods. For friction studies, the cold extrusion under dry conditions of low density polyethylene was performed at room... 

In many cases supports are shaped into simple cylinders (1-5 mm in diameter and 10-20 mm in length) in an extrusion process. The support powder is mixed with binders and water to form a paste that is forced through small holes of the desired size and shape. The paste should be sufficiently stiff such that the ribbon of extmded material maintains its shape during drying and shrinking. When dried, the material is cut or broken into pieces of the desired length. Extrusion is also applied to make ceramic monoliths such as those used in automotive exhaust catalysts and in DeNOx reactors. 

The first task was to produce carriers from different recipes and in different shapes as shown schematically in Fig. 8. The raw materials diatomaceous earth, water and various binders are mixed to a paste, which is subsequently extruded through a shaped nozzle and cut off to wet pellets. The wet pellets are finally dried and heated in a furnace in an oxidising atmosphere (calcination). The nozzle geometry determines the cross section of the pellet (cf. Fig. 3) and the pellet length is controlled by adjusting the cut-off device. Important parameters in the extrusion process are the dry matter content and the viscosity of the paste. The pore volume distribution of the carriers is measured by Hg porosimetry, in which the penetration of Hg into the pores of the carrier is measured as a function of applied pressure, and the surface area is measured by the BET method, which is based on adsorption of nitrogen on the carrier surface [1]. 

The industrial use of twin-screw extruders for this purpose revolves extensively, but not exclusively, around intermeshing co-rotating variants. Closely in-termeshing counter-rotating designs are widely used for profile extrusion of UPVC dry-blends since they permit close temperature control and exhibit a high conveying efficiency due to the positive displacement of material where the screws intermesh [150]. 

Microencapsulation using extrusion is mainly described for glassy carbohydrate matrices [14-16, 28-29]. The glassy carbohydrates, such as starch and maltodextrins, are melted at elevated temperature and low water contents and are intensively mixed with the active in the extrusion barrel. Extrusion has been used for volatile and unstable flavours. The shelf life of flavour oils could be extended from several months to 5 years, compared with 1 year for spray-dried materials. The main drawbacks of the technology are the high investments costs and the formation of rather large particles (500-1,000 pm). 

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