American Kuhne Extends Navigator® Controls to Extruders & Systems for Pelletizing

April 25, 2021

Underwater, ring, or strand, high quality pelletizing begins with control of the process.

Pelletizing is the life-blood of a plastics plant and plays a critical role in the overall plant quality system. Whether the pelletizing process occurs in to densify a low bulk density product, filter out contaminants, provide homogeneity to a mixed source of materials, provide added mixing to an additive package, or some other necessity to the primary process, the end product – pellets – are essential to quality. High quality pelletizing begins with control of the process. 

American Kuhne is a trusted provider of single-screw extruders, extrusion systems & Steward Barrier® screws custom designed to the material being processed for pelletizing – underwater, ring, or strand. A recent innovation is the extension of the company’s XC300 Navigator® controls system to pelletizing solutions, the first of which recently shipped to a leading roto-molder for recycling and reintroducing its post-industrial regrind to its primary process. 

The award-winning Navigator® controls supervise the entire process allowing the extruder speed and/or melt pump speed to directly to cutter speed, ensuring consistent pellet size and shape. Trending extruder pressures versus extruder speeds versus drive loads, along with alerts and alarms, gives the operator visibility into the behavior of the raw materials and feeding systems. Alerts to temperature can indicate a shift in the process or an outside change that is detrimental to the quality of the pellet.