1. General presentation

1.1 Basic principle

As mentioned in the introduction, the purpose of a micro-compounder is to work with very small quantities of material. This may be necessary for ingredients that are only a few grams in size (e.g., chemically synthesized) or prohibitively expensive (e.g., pharmaceuticals). It is therefore natural to think about reducing the size of extruders, but below a certain diameter and maintaining the usual length/diameter ratios, processing conditions are insufficient to mix or transform the materials used correctly. The idea is therefore to couple a small twin-screw extruder with a recirculation channel,...