Hello all,
I plan to fabricate a plastic extruder that has a capacity of extruding at least 100kg of plastics per hour. Please, can someone help me with the required thickness of the extrusion pipe. The planned extruder is for a mini commercial purpose.
I hope to hear from you guys.
Regards.
Benneth
to have such high production capacity you’ll need a bigger extrusion screw instead of an auger drill bit. which either you’ll have to buy or get made first,then you can use any pipe in which your screw fits snugly.
Also any extruder that gives 100kg/hour is no longer “mini”
p.s there is a part in Dave’s video where he shows what an industrial extrusion screw looks like, you’ll need that my friend
Thanks guys I appreciate all the help … Will keep you Informed as to my progress
as a reference some tech data from an industrial machine:
Twin screw extruder, parallel
Manufacturer: Weber
Type: DS 85
Screw diameter: 2 x 85 mm (parallel)
Screw length: 17 x D
Screw speed: max. 30 1/min., stufenlos regelbar
Drive power: 50 kW
Total torque: 12000 Nm
Output capacity: max. ap. 120 kg/h for Rigid-PVC, depending on material
Hope it helps 
Dave´s pipe is probably mild steel, the thermo-plastic extruder we use where I work use stainless I think. It should not be a problem using mild steel, thou there could be corrosion if left for a longer period.
The wall thickness one Dave´s pipe is 4mm, (OD 34 – ID 26 = 8 / 2 (two walls) = 4mm)
If you increase the size of the pipe, you should increase the wall thickness also, becose if you use a proper extrusion screw you will have higher pressure.
But with auger drill bits you should be good with 4mm wall thickness (biggest auger drill bit I have seen is only 34mm)
If you increase the RPM you run the risk of the plastic not heating up sufficiently, and increasing the temperature has the risk of burning the plastic.
You could also make an longer extruder then the plastic has more time to heat up, but then you have to find longer auger drill bit, or if you are skilled you could weld auger drill bits together, but that might be hard becose the screw needs to be straight.
Also the screws do get worn.
Hope this helps anything.
Hi … I’m also looking at a higher output for the extruder … Around 30kg/hour … Can increasing the RPM do the trick or do I need to increase the auger bit size ?? ……
I would also like to make a pelletizer to operate with the extruder …. Any ideas ???
Many thanks for any help ….
you are welcome @bohia
do share your project pictures here
Thanks @sharma-sagar
the OD of barrel is 34mm
and ID is 26 mm so that would make its thickness equal to 8 mm if you go by the blueprints. and i think that is mild steel but im not sure. ask @davehakkens
Thanks Sharma-Sagar. I know about the industrial extrusion screw. I have already seen one in a shop here in Nigeria. I am only worried about the thickness of the extrusion barrel/pipe. I need one that cannot be easily damaged from the heat of the band heater. Also, should it be a stainless or a mild steel material?
