SFV - RFV

STEER’S SPECIAL SHOVEL ELEMENTS - HIGHER INTAKE. GREATER FORWARD CONVEYING ABILITY

Introducing powders in a co-rotating extruder has been a challenge for years. By oversizing the extruder to meet desired output, not only the energy efficiency is compromised but also the process capability of the extruder is low. This causes expensive formulation adjustments. Normal screws work similar to a conventional snow plough. The face is slanted forward to throw the material to the side. In an extruder, this reduces intake capacity due to fluidisation. lf a snow plough is fitted with a shovel face, it will quickly build a mound of snow in front of it. The ability to move material forward rather than sideward makes the extruder torque limited (from being feed limited).

STEER’S Single Flight (Unilobe) Shovel elements (SFV) and Regular Flight (Bilobe) Shovel Elements (RFV) help you achieve higher intake (over 300% in starve feed) as well as side-feed capacity. These special shovel elements have far greater forward conveying ability when compared to normal elements.

SFV PATENT: Ref. No. JP 4977683 RFV PATENT: Pending

FME

STEER’S SPECIAL FRACTIONAL-LOBE ELEMENTS - ENHANCED MIXING DUE TO EXTENSIONAL FLOW. BETTER WETTING ACTION

FRACTIONAL MIXING ELEMENTS (FME) The FME elements are a unique family of mixing elements that offer the ability to avoid the effects of pressure peaks and shear peaks while imparting a high degree of elongational mixing in a constrained space. Materials passing through FME’s, experience a very uniform and effective energy input such that extended mixing sections are not needed to ensure that all materials have been exposed to adequate mixing energy. FME’s are excellent in dispersing synthetic, glass, and natural fibers and fillers without excessive shear, particularly when coupled with DSE mixing elements. FME’s have proven to be particularly effective in the compounding of biomass thermoplastic composites, a rapidly growing sector of the bioplastics market, enabling enhanced production rates with no damage to the biomass filler.

STEER Patent:- Ref. No. US 6,783,270 B1.

FKB

STEER’S SPECIAL FRACTIONAL-LOBE ELEMENTS - ENHANCED MIXING DUE TO EXTENSIONAL FLOW. BETTER WETTING ACTION

FRACTIONAL LOBE KNEADING BLOCK (FKB) FKB’s have enhanced melting and mixing efficiency when compared to normal kneading blocks as a result of their ability to stretch, fold and squeeze material in closely operated kneading cycles. By utilising fractional-lobe technology, shear peaks are eliminated and energy is more uniformly transferred to the materials being processed. This increase in the uniformity and intensity of energy input resuIts in the requirement of a much shorter kneading section, up to 50%shorter than a typical kneading section using standard kneading blocks. This reduces energy consumption by the extruder and ultimately enables an increase in throughput and line capacity. Improvements can also be realised in product quality and overall production efficiency. FKB’s are particularly effective in mixing different materials with a wide discrepancy in melt viscosities, such as compounding high temperature engineering thermoplastics with low viscosity resins and liquid additives.

STEER Patent:- Ref. No. US 6,783,270 B1.

DSE

STEER’S DYNAMIC STIR ELEMENTS - IMPROVED FLOW DISTRIBUTION

DSE’s are special mixing elements that feature corresponding pins and grooves to impart highly effective dynamic stirring action in an unconstrained, open environment. The open architecture of the element, which couples mixing with forward conveying, prevents shear and heat generation that can occur when highly filled resin comes in contact with typical mixing elements. The self-wiping design of the element prevents stagnation and degradation that can occur with many laminar mixing elements.

DSE’s reproduce the gentle mixing action of co-kneaders within a twin-screw extruder, such that existing twin-screw extruders can now process materials once bound to co-kneaders. DSE’s work very well for the pre-wetting and premixing of high levels of fillers and reinforcements prior to exposing them to a confined kneading environment, thus eliminating the intense particle-to-particle shear that can occur when un-wetted fillers are compressed.

DSE PATENT: Pending