Laboratory Extruders

INDUSTRIES AND MATERIALS SERVED

• What You Can Trial - Chemical and Catalyst Development

  Development of new catalyst body geometries, pore structures, and binder formulations for alumina, silica, and zeolite-based catalysts is one of the more demanding laboratory extrusion applications, requiring precise control of paste rheology, die geometry, and drying conditions before committing to production tooling. The Bonnot laboratory extruder's direct mechanical similarity to the CT production series means that a binder formulation and die geometry combination that achieves target crush strength and pore volume on the 1" laboratory machine will produce comparable results on the CT 6 or CT 8 production extruder without re-development.

• What You Can Trial - Food, Pet Food, and Nutraceuticals

  Formulation of new snack, cereal, pet food, and functional food products on the laboratory extruder follows a direct scale-up path to the CO and FF production series. The consistent scale-up path eliminates the reformulation cycles that commonly arise when pilot and production machines are architecturally dissimilar - a problem that is particularly acute in cooking extrusion, where the texture and appearance of the final product depend on the precise relationship between screw speed, barrel temperature, and die back-pressure, all of which change when the machine geometry changes.

• What You Can Trial - Rubber and Sealant Compounds

  Compound development for new rubber profiles, sealant bases, and adhesive formulations on the laboratory extruder benefits directly from the quick-release die system, which allows trial of multiple die geometries and barrel configurations in a single session. A formulation programme that requires testing fifteen die geometries can be completed on the Bonnot laboratory extruder in a single extended session rather than requiring a dedicated extruder run for each variant.

• What You Can Trial - Specialty and Advanced Materials

  Advanced composite materials, engineered functional pastes, and specialty materials for emerging applications - where batch sizes are small, process window accuracy is critical, and prior extrusion art is limited - are well-suited to development on the Bonnot laboratory range.

• What You Can Trial - Clay, Ceramics, and Technical Oxides

  New ceramic body formulations, technical oxide pastes, and advanced ceramic precursors can be evaluated on the laboratory extruder with confidence that the rheological behaviour, extrudate geometry, and green-density measurements obtained at laboratory scale will transfer to the production series without re-qualification. This is particularly valuable in technical ceramic development, where the cost of production-scale die tooling means that a formulation must be well-characterised at laboratory scale before the capital commitment to production tooling is made.