Recent advances in barrier screw design

Barrier screws have been ubiquitous in the moulding and extrusion industry for almost half a century. However, conventional barrier screws have some drawbacks that limit their applicability. One of the most serious drawbacks of barrier screws is that they are more susceptible to solid bed plugging; severe plugging results in process instabilities (surging). Chris Rauwendaal describes how the optimum design of barrier screws can largely eliminate the chance of plugging while improving the melting and mixing performance.