Purpose & Overview
The demand for high performance polymers and the evolution of polymer science are responsible for the widespread application of twin-screw extruders. The technologies utilized for primary polymer processing (i.e., reactive extrusion, devolatilization, compounding, etc.) have been developed for three commercially available geometries: intermeshing, co-rotating, intermeshing counter-rotating and non-intermeshing counter-rotating.
This seminar is intended to provide a fundamental understanding of the operating window for each geometry and gain insight into the optimization of screw design. Emphasis is on hardware design/configuration and operating parameters with the goal of producing high quality resin at high throughput and low cost.

Who Should Attend?
Process engineers from both manufacturing and research environments will benefit from this practical approach to twin-screw extrusion, as will scientists involved in polymer product development. This is an introductory course targeted for process development and process improvement.

About the Instructor: Adam Dreiblatt
Adam has been involved with the practical aspects of twin-screw extrusion for 20 years. He was formerly Manager of Process Development at Werner & Pfleiderer Corporation and more recently Director of Manufacturing for the Novon Products Division of Warner-Lambert. Adam is now President of Extrusioneering International, Inc., a consulting organization founded in 1994, specializing in twin-screw extrusion technologies.

Adam has authored and presented numerous technical papers as well as published articles on various aspects of twin screw extrusion. He has contributed several chapters in reference books including: "Screw Design," Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Engineering (John Wiley), "Intermeshing Co-rotating Twin Screw Extruders," Mixing in Polymer Processing (Marcel Dekker), "Internal Mixers, Single and Twin Screw Extruders," Handbook of Process Plant Machinery (Butterworth Publishing). He holds a M.S. in Applied Science from New York University.

Seminar Content
Twin Screw Extruder Design Criteria • Influence of extruder geometry on mixing, pressure generation, mass transfer and residence time; co-rotating, counter-rotating, intermeshing, non-intermeshing
Process Design • Process flexibility, modularity, unit operations • Starve feeding, downstream feeding • Process variables, interactions
Screw Design Fundamentals • Functional description of screw types (all geometries) • Principles of screw design; solids conveying, melting, heat transfer, mixing (dispersive vs. distributive), venting, pressure generation
Process Examples • Compounding: alloying, blending, fillers, concentrates • Devolatilization: multi-stage venting • Reactive processing: polymerization, reactive compounding
Scale - Up Criteria • Volumetric scale-up • Power limited scale-up • Heat transfer scale-up
Process Troubleshooting • Time dependence of process disturbances; consistency (within-lot), reproducibility (lot-to-lot)