Originally Posted by
DoubleBuck
Guys, I'm sorry to make so many posts, but I have an idea for a couple of years, that I have to share. It could be very easily adapted to our use, which would cut process times by half, or more. Maybe a lot more.
Some of you are surely familiar with extruders? I have watched them work two times, and they are amazing machines. While doing contract maintenance, I watched an aluminum extruder make thousands of linear feet of commercial building window frames, like you see on large buildings which look like nearly solid glass. The other was watching Purina Feeds Mill, in Kansas City, make thousands of pounds of cattle cubes, every hour. For those not familiar with cattle cubes, they are not cubes, but about one inch diameter, two inch long round cylinders.
A giant feed hopper under a mixer loads the mixed feed into an extruder, which (in this case) augers the feed to an extruder head, which puts enormous pressure on it and forces it through say 1" diameter holes in the head, with auto cutters designed to cut every two inches, the string of plasticized feed which is coming out at tons per hour, and very warm, from the pressure.
Actually, a good press could be converted to hold the die and extruder head in our case; that head to have the number and diameter of holes to make which ever size grains you want. If you want 2ff powder; according to Skylighter, 2ff powder has grain sizes of .59 mm to 1.19 mm, or .023" to .047". If you know what percentage of each grain size you want, hole size according; by percentage. We are already using two thirds of an extruder. Our dies are two parts and all that is required is the extrusion head. They would have to be HARD stainless, or some other hard metal. Aluminum might work, but it also would surely wear quickly, if used heavily.
As a rough example; if you want 50% of each, and you have five holes of each size, on a 2" diameter extruder, and it takes 3,000 pounds per square inch of pressure to make 1.5 Grams per CC of density, set the hydraulic ram regulator or press, to press that amount. If it takes 3,600 pounds to make 1.7 G/CC density, set your press or ram regulator to 3.600 pounds and run a pound of freshly milled green meal through it in five minutes. The pressure sets the density; the extruder makes the grain size and all it has to have done is tumbled, or ground to break up the strings of pre sized powder worms. Our milling would be perfect for this setup and it would cut out a load of time. Plus, extruders work with near zero moisture. In feed extruders, the moisture is higher, but the extruder heats it and it dries completely, very quickly.
Commercial powder manufacturers have missed the nail, by not extruding powder, in my opinion. It would cut out at least two major steps, them being screening to size and pressing to density. Straight from extrusion to tumbling/polishing, to drying.
I could sell this idea to GOEX or their competitor for millions of dollars, but I chose to share it with everyone who reads this. Mark my words, SOMEONE will be extruding powder, in the very near future. You heard it first, right here.