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US 2023/0201873 A1Published application
Extrusion method and apparatus
AssigneeZephyros, Inc.
InventorsVincent Hoff, Christophe Epp
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Improvements in the extrusion of thermohardenable materials are achieved by cooling the material in the initial zone of the extruder and reducing residence time by use of a prescribed length to diameter ratio and screw speed, particularly useful for intermittent application during robotically controlled mass production.
Claims21
1-34. (canceled)
A process for extruding thermally activatable material on a substrate comprising:
- (a) feeding the thermally activatable material into an extruder via a feed section, which compresses and moves the thermally activatable material to an extrusion screw;
- (b) moving the thermally activatable material along the extrusion screw within a barrel of the extruder through one or more zones by rotating the extrusion screw;
- (c) passing the thermally activatable material from the extrusion screw through an extrusion die as a molten material;
- and
- (d) extruding the thermally activatable material onto the substrate at a temperature below the activation temperature, where the thermally activatable material bonds to the substrate and cools;
- wherein the extrusion screw rotates in a clockwise direction and a counterclockwise direction to create a discontinuous pattern or array of the thermally activatable material having one or more gaps free of the thermally activatable material.
3 more elements
The process according to claim 1, wherein the thermally activatable material is engaged with grooves formed in the barrel;
- and wherein the grooves are equally spaced around an internal diameter of the barrel along a length of the extrusion screw.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.