Sigma -: A simulation tool for tightly intermeshing, co-rotating twin screw extruders

More than 80% of all polymers are compounded, whereas compounding covers all processing steps that are required to modify the raw material into a processable material. Most of all, the tightly intermeshing co-rotating twin screw extruder is used for performing this task. Such an extruder consists of two screws, which are rotating in the same direction in a heated or cooled barrel with an eight-like looking bore. Both the screw and the barrel are modular constituted. In order to optimise the machine set-up in view of a given task the selection and arrangement of the screw and barrel elements are of vital importance. Usually, an experienced senior employee does such an optimisation. Thereby, a lot of trial and error experiments are often included in the optimisation process. Besides, there do exist a number of process models that allow for the mathematical evaluation of the process behaviour of the machine. However, these models are due to their mathematical complexity not easy to handle. That is why most process models are not applied by the industry. Hence, the Institute of Polymer Engineering at the University of Paderborn in Germany develops a software tool that is able to estimate all substantial process parameters.