Special production: Production line for the manufacture of ceramic injection molded feedstocks.
Most of our equipment is developed and produced specifically to customer requirements. This was also the case with a production line for the manufacture of ceramic injection molded feedstocks, which was recently delivered. Although the customer initially wanted to procure a shear roll, trials in our laboratory convinced him of the suitability of our twin-screw extruders for his requirements.
Extruder: ZE 18 HMI
Metering device: ZD 12 twin screw feeder with flat-tray, ED 20 single screw feeder
Process Equipment: Cooling conveyor belt, granulator
Batch weight: 1 to 10 kg
Application: Research & Development
The initial contact with the customer came through a recommendation from an existing client. The customer was seeking a shear roll system for producing ceramic injection molding (CIM) feedstocks at a laboratory scale. The equipment was intended to produce batches ranging from one to ten kilograms from a mixing unit.
As a specialist for customized solutions, we wanted to offer the customer a hand, even though we had not manufactured shear rolls ourselves before. Since the technology of shear rolls and extruders is related, it was agreed in a first step to carry out trials on an existing twin screw extruder in the Xceptional Instruments laboratory to test whether an extruder would also be suitable for the application as an alternative. Although the customer already had a laboratory extruder from a competitor, it was unsuitable due to the low torque and insufficient mixing effect, which led the customer to focus on a shear roll.
The trials at Xceptional Instruments were carried out using a ZE 18 extruder with a screw diameter of 18 mm and a process length of L/D 40 (720 mm) to test its performance in terms of compounding and homogenization. For this purpose, a powder feeder was used for the pre-mix of three solid components, a pellet feeder for the pre-mix of two binder components, a conveyor belt for uniform discharge and cooling of the extrudate, and a pelletizer. Following the tests, the extruder was cleaned with cleaning granules, whereby the cleaning time could be massively reduced compared to normal manual cleaning.
The extruded and granulated materials from the tests were collected by the customer for further analysis.
The successful tests, which exceeded the customer's expectations, led to the order of the complete set of equipment with which the tests were carried out.
The main reasons for the decision in favor of the extruder were:
extrusion as a continuous process incl. automated feeding of raw materials
very good melting, homogenizing, dispersing properties
a lower throughput time and a single-stage instead of a multi-stage process, compared to the existing laboratory extruder
the resulting highly efficient production of ceramic injection molded feedstocks and significant simplification of work in the laboratory
The plant was specifically developed and produced by Xceptional Instruments's specialists according to the customer’s requirements. After efficient manufacturing time following the order, the new plant could finally be put into operation at the customer's site.