Abstract: A pinned shaft and correspondingly a pinned shell are described having the pins attached to the cylindrical surfaces in such a manner that all of the pins are arranged in a geometrically symmetrical pattern of squares or equilateral triangles or equilateral hexagons with the further provision that the pins are not arranged along straight lines or on circles. By this arrangement of pins a very uniform action of the pins is achieved, the pin density being constant over the entire pinned shaft and the distance between adjacent pins being identical all over the pinned shell. A carbon black pelleting device incorporating such a pinned shaft.

Abstract: The invention is directed to apparatus for conditioning and dispensing particulate solid material which includes a conditioning chamber having an upper receiving inlet and a dispensing outlet, a first auger disposed within the chamber and extending towards the outlet and having a helical blade for propelling material towards the outlet in response to rotation thereof, a second larger open spiral auger mounted coaxially with respect to the first auger for feeding the material into the first auger in response to rotation of the second auger, the second auger being disposed concentrically and in overlapping relationship with respect to the first auger, a third open spiral auger mounted in side-by-side parallel relationship with respect to the second auger, the third auger being of substantially the same diameter as the second auger, and a driving mechanism for rotating the three augers at a predetermined ratio of speeds one with respect to the others.

Abstract: An extruder apparatus with an extrusion screw having an end member which blends molten and solid thermoplastic materials moving through the apparatus into a uniformly fluxed consistency, and a method for uniformly fluxing and blending thermoplastic materials. The extrusion screw end member is provided with a conical terminus forming an annular shoulder with openings extending therethrough.

Abstract: In a mixing device adapted to mix materials flowing therethrough from an inlet end to an outlet end in which there are provided agitating elements as on a rotating shaft, there is provided an internal recycling means to impel at least a portion of the material flowing from the inlet end toward the outlet end countercurrently to the main flow, i.e. toward the inlet end to effect an in situ recycle. There is disclosed a pelleting apparatus having a horizontally-disposed substantially cyclindrical shell, a rotating, pin-equipped shaft, inlet and outlet means for feeding material to be pelleted and pelleting liquid into and through the device, the shaft having mounted thereon, at least over a length thereof, at least one reverse-flight or blade adapted to cause motion toward the inlet end of the device of at least a portion of the mass being pelleted.

Abstract: Apparatus for separating a substantially insoluble liquid from a mixture containing a polymer or polymer mixture. The liquid is a vapor at the usual temperature and pressure of the polymer extrusion operation and is kept in liquid form by providing a high pressure region in the extruder. A liquid outlet is provided upstream of the high pressure region and the liquid is maintained under pressure and taken off as a liquid. The pressure restricting means may be a liquid outlet provided with a pressure control valve, trap or the like.

Abstract: An extruder screw for the processing of thermoplastics, natural rubber and other elastomeric materials, comprising a screw core and a plurality of webs spiralling around the core and forming a multi-start thread in which, for at least a portion of the length of the extruder screw, the webs each have alternating lengths of lower height and lengths of greater height and, at the trailing end, having regard to the direction of rotation of the screw, of each of the web lengths of greater height, a transverse web is provided of approximately the same height as the web lengths of lower height, such transverse webs each connecting the trailing end of a respective one of the web lengths of greater height with the leading end of one of the web lengths of lower height of the next adjacent rearward, having regard to the direction of conveyance of material through the extruder, one of the webs. Preferably the lengths of web of greater height and the lengths of web of lower height are all of equal length.

Abstract: A typical compression relief design extruder screw having a helical flight for advancing and working a thermoplastic material is modified to shorten the feed and compression sections and to include a plurality of force-producing components in at least the compression section of the screw such that at least some portion of the components in any one turn of the flight lie in one plane essentially normal to the axis of rotation of the screw and such that the walls of the flight are uninterrupted. This arrangement controls the location of the rupturing or fragmenting of what is referred to as the solid bed and controls the manner in which it is fragmented to provide an extrudate at a die end of the extruder which has a constant temperature and and which is uniform throughout each successive section of the thermoplastic material.

Abstract: A carbon black pelleter having a pinned shaft rotatably arranged in a cylindrical housing is provided with one or more rows of pins (shell pins) attached to the housing in the lower half of the housing. The shaft pins during one revolution of the shaft are sandwiched between the shell pins, but not more than 1/6 of the entire sandwiching during one revolution of the shaft occurs at the same moment.