Method for performing a material change in a feeding device of an extruder
AssigneeWindmoller & Holscher
InventorsMartin Backmann, Tobias Kulgemeyer, Gerhard Middelberg
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method changes the material from a feed mixture to a subsequent mixture in a feed device of an extruder, the method comprising the steps of detecting a change request for changing the material, emptying a mixing area of a mixing device of the feed device, identifying the completion of the emptying of the mixing area, and filling the mixing area of the mixing device with the subsequent mixture after the completion of the emptying has been identified.
Claims11
A method for performing a material change from a feed mixture to a subsequent mixture in a feed device of an extruder, comprising the following steps:
- detecting a change request to execute the material change,
- emptying a mixing area of a mixing device of a receiving device,
- detecting an end of emptying the mixing area,
- filling the mixing area of the mixing device with the subsequent mixture after the detected completion of emptying,
- wherein at least one of the following steps is performed prior to emptying the mixing area:
- emptying at least one storage container which is mounted upstream of the mixing device,
- filling the at least one storage container with a subsequent material for the subsequent mixture,
- emptying a dosing container which is arranged upstream of the mixing device and downstream of the at least one storage container,
- filling the dosing container from the at least one storage container with the subsequent material of the subsequent mixture,
- wherein cascaded filling takes place so that, during operation with the feed mixture, first the at least one storage container and then the dosing container are acted upon with the subsequent material or the subsequent mixture, while the extruder still processes an end of current formulation conditions with the feed mixture.
A feed device for an extruder, having at least two storage containers for receiving different feed materials, at least one dosing container for receiving and dosing feed materials and a mixing device for mixing the feed materials to form a feed mixture in a mixing area and having a transfer area for transferring the feed mixture to the extruder, further comprising a control device for performing a method for performing a material change from a feed mixture to a subsequent mixture in a feeding device of an extruder, comprising the following steps:
- detecting a change request to execute the material change,
- emptying a mixing area of a mixing device of a receiving device,
- detecting an end of emptying the mixing area,
- filling the mixing area of the mixing device with the subsequent mixture after the detected completion of emptying,
- wherein at least one of the following steps is performed prior to emptying the mixing area:
- emptying at least one storage container which is mounted upstream of the mixing device,
- filling the at least one storage container with a subsequent material for the subsequent mixture,
- emptying a dosing container which is arranged upstream of the mixing device and downstream of the at least one storage container,
- filling the dosing container from the at least one storage container with the subsequent material of the subsequent mixture,
- wherein cascaded filling takes place so that, during operation with the feed mixture, first the at least one storage container and then the dosing container are acted upon with the subsequent material or the subsequent mixture, while the extruder still processes an end of current formulation conditions with the feed mixture.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.