During VIV Asia 2011, Amandus Kahl will showcase the Crown Expander: a device for shaping without a pelleting press. Amandus Kahl's customers operate over 600 expanders worldwide.

The pressure load in the expander acts on all sides of the coarse particles. The homogeneous pressure distribution on the entire particle circumference is supported by embedding these coarse particles in a pasty moist matrix of fine particles.

Another advantage lies in the fact that the finer particles are agglomerated during expansion and thus are transformed into coarse structures. Engineers at Amandus Kahl have equipped the expander outlet with an annular die, similar to that of a pelleting press. A die without pan grinder rollers to be more precise. The engineers wondered: should the high internal pressure of the expander not be able to press the finished product right through the round or oblong bores in the die ring, thus making the pressing and crushing effect of pan grinder rollers superfluous?

A rotating cutter was designed, meant to cut the product strands leaving the die to uniform pellet lengths. So the »Crown Expander« was born. The machine owes its name to the crown form of the first dies which were provided with slits instead of bores.

One important component of the annular gap expander remained unchanged in the Crown expander: the hydraulically moveable cone. This cone can be moved into and out of the crown die at the outlet end. Depending on the position of the cone in the die, more or less die bores are open for the production of pellets. Thus, the pelleting process is easy to control by simply varying the cone position – in contrast to conventional extrusion processes which require die changes or far more complicated control mechanisms.

The results obtained so far have met every expectation, which means that Amandus Kahl has succeeded in the proverbial “squaring of the circle”: the Crown expander produces pellets or other regularly shaped structures while preserving coarse particles and simultaneously agglomerating fine and finest components. The positive nutritional effect of expansion is an additional advantage which traditional pelleting does not offer.

For further information about the Crown expander, please visit Amandus Kahl's website at www.akahl.de.

 

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