Extrusion process for proppant production

Abstract

An extrusion method and apparatus are described for producing ceramics, glass, glass-ceramics, or composites suitable for use as proppants. The method includes forming one or more green body materials, extruding the green body materials to form a green body extrudate, separating and shaping the green body extrudate into individual green bodies, and sintering the green bodies to form proppants. The apparatus includes a means for forming an intimate mixture of green body materials, means to produce a green body extrudate, means for separating and shaping the green body extrudate into individual green bodies, and means to sinter the green green bodies to form proppants.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.