FEATURE
EXTRUSION REVOLUTION
S
by Danny Chang, IDAH Co., Ltd Taiwan
till in its infancy stage in Southeast Asia, the pet food and aqua feed industry, especially for floating fish feeds made by extrusion, has been experiencing high organic growth by volume of feeds produced every year. In order to fulfill this growing demand, more lines of extrusion equipment are invested. Several challenges have emerged from this unprecedented expansion: lack of qualified operators, production problems due to formulation changes (increasing the concentration of plant protein versus animal protein), loss of startup wastes, unseasoned equipment operational and maintenance skills, higher standards for feed quality, and costs of energy per tonne of feed produced. Manufacturers of pet food and aquatic feeds have seen significant increases in the cost of their raw materials and energy costs. Profit margins have been difficult to maintain and the future promises no change in this situation. IDAH have always recognised these issues and it is built into our core philosophy to supply solutions that maximise opportunities for our customers.
fish feeds to 27mm sinking fish feeds. Remarkable energy saving per tonne, with up to 20 percent energy saving, has been observed at customer sites. Another method that ContraTwin saves energy by is using more direct steam thermal energy instead of mechanical energy or shear. Due to the significant reduction in energy consumption, feed millers are able to produce less carbon footprints, directly giving them sustainable feed products.
ContraTwin: answer to all challenges
To meet these new challenges, a revolutionary extrusion system designed to fit the local markets was required. With a 40-year history in aqua feed production, IDAH developed its answer in the form of ContraTwin. It is designed with twin-screw extrusion features but with re-engineered screw designs and rotation direction to accommodate future aqua feed formulation. Developed to convey very sticky and puffy material (such as high fibre materials like plant protein), ContraTwin uses a very positive pump that does not waste mechanical energy or shear. For tougher materials, operators can perform cooking in the midbarrel system; this is where the actual work is done. The result of this strong pump and cooking significantly increases efficiency and utilises lower Specific Mechanical Energy (SME) when compared with other single or co-rotating twin screw extrusion. The ContraTwin is designed with an innovative 3-part transmission system. A motor drives a splitter gearbox and a relatively large bearing base is aligned and interconnected, which delivers a round the clock rugged operation machine. The ContraTwin extruder is very easy to use and offers a unique operation experience. It is designed for beginner operators, easing most customer fears of finding skillful extruder operators. Sharing the benefits of extruders with twin screws, ContraTwin has low start up waste and wide product characteristics compared to single screw extruders. It can produce aqua feed with extruder die ranging from 0.6mm floating
Features and benefits of ContraTwin
Patent design with counter-rotating twin screws. Unique drive train to minimise capital costs, energy costs and maintenance costs – We engineer for rugged 24/7 operations. ContraTwin screws don’t waste energy shearing the product. They convey even the most difficult fibrous ingredient mixes to the point in the extruder where we choose to do the work. The very positive action of the ContraTwin screws forms highly uniform pellets even when fiber content is high or viscosity is low. ContraTwin mid-barrel die with shaft support system is the place we choose to do the work for most products. This short intensive work zone minimises the wasted energy resulting from traditional extrusion systems, with minimum back-flow (pressure flow) giving minimised length of the work zone, reducing torque All this creates a machine that has specific mechanical energy (SME) and wear costs only typically previously seen in single screw systems, with capital costs that also match. Smallest die plate is 0.6mm for floating fish feeds.
42 | May 2017 - International Aquafeed