Laboratory Preparation of the Blends

Product development work is usually carried out in a pilot plant. Here one can use a small Banbury or a Brabender mixer for a batch process and a small twin-screw mixer or a co-kneader for development work on a continuous process. 

Brabender-type units are preferred for product and process development work because they are easy to use, require only a small quantity of compounds, and provide very valuable information, which includes fusion rate and blend stability at mix temperature as well as reaction kinetics as a function of mixing speed, temperature, and rotor type. This information is very important in the production scale-up of 

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