Machine with two converging threaded rotors for the extrusion of plastomers, elastomers and the like

Abstract: Machine with two generally converging threaded rotors (5) for the extrusion of plastomers, elastomers and the like, comprising a structure (1, 2, 3) supporting a housing (4) containing the rotors (5), a casing (6) containing a pair of reducers (7), a device (11) for generating the movement and devices (10) for synchronized transmission thereof to the two reducers (7), wherein said housing containing the rotors (5) and said casing (6) containing the reducers are rigidly fixed to the support structure (1, 2, 3) and integrally connected together via a housing (8) arranged between the two and containing first means (8a, 8c) for supporting the rotors (5), said rotors being formed in two separate parts (5a, 5b), removably joined to one another, said devices (10) for synchronized transmission of the movement being integral with the bottom part of the said casing (6) and having a high-speed shaft (12) arranged along an axis forming an angle with the axis of the associated rotor (5) and coaxial with the high-speed shaft of the other synchronized transmission device, said high-speed drive shafts (12) being coupled to the first shaft (14) of the respective reducer (7) via a bevel gear (13).

Description: The present invention relates to a machine with converging and threaded rotors for the extrusion of plastomers, elastomers and the like. In the technical sector of elastomer and plastomer processing it is known of so-called conical twin-screw extruder machines in which two threaded shafts, known simply as rotors, are arranged with converging axes inside a containment casing. It is also known that said rotors must be made to rotate at a low number of revolutions and must rotate in a synchronized manner with respect to one another so as to maintain the angular phase difference which is predefined during assembly of the machine so as to avoid interference between the threading of the two rotors - interference which would prevent rotation of the latter particularly in the case of rotors of the interpenetrating type. It is also known from the publications EP 0,472,431 and EP 0,598,376 of devices for actuating said rotors respectively based on: transmissions of the endless-screw type, helical wheel and bevel gears for direct transmission of the movement and the synchronism between the low-speed rotors, in the first case; and transmissions with a reducer associated with each rotor and conical drives for transmission of the movement and the synchronism via the high-speed shafts rather than the low-speed shafts, in the second case. The extruders according to the known art, however, have a support and containment structure of large dimensions and considerable structural complexity which substantially prevents easy assembly during installation and subsequent easy access for the routine maintenance operations. In addition to this, the extruders of the type illustrated in the patent EP 0,598,376 are designed such that the reducers are mounted projecting from the rotor shaft, which is thus exposed to undesirable flexural stresses not due to interaction with the material. The technical problem which is posed, therefore, is that of providing an extruder of the type with two converging screws, or conical twin-screw extruder, which allows transmission of the movement and the synchronism to the rotors via devices which are simple and readily available, but which at the same time are able to ensure the necessary resistance to the flexural and torsional forces which the rotors transmit during their interaction with the material for feeding of the latter towards the extrusion head. Within the scope of this problem, a further necessity is that the extruder support structure should be extremely rigid and compact and that it should be possible to extract the rotors easily from the machine for the routine maintenance operations without the need for disassembly of most of the transmission devices in order to access the rotors themselves. These results are obtained by the present invention which provides a machine with converging threaded rotors for the extrusion of plastomers, elastomers and the like, comprising a structure supporting a housing containing the rotors, a casing containing a pair of reducers, a device for generating the movement and devices for synchronized transmission thereof to the two reducers, wherein said housing containing the rotors and said casing containing the reducers are rigidly fixed to the said support structure and integrally connected together via a housing arranged between the two and containing first means for supporting the rotors, which are formed in two separate parts, removably joined to one another, one for receiving the driving movement and the other having a variable-pitch threading, said devices for synchronized transmission of the movement being integral with the bottom part of the said casing. Each of said high-speed shafts is arranged along an axis forming an angle with the axis of the associated rotor and coaxial with the high-speed shaft of the other synchronized transmission device, said high-speed drive shafts being coupled to the first shaft of the respective reducer via a bevel gear. Further details and characteristic features of the extrusion machine according to the invention will emerge more clearly from the following description provided solely by way of example with reference to the accompanying figures, in which: Fig. 1 shows a side view of the extruder according to the invention; Fig. 2 shows a plan view of the extruder partially open in the region of the rotors; Fig. 3 shows a partial section along a plane indicated by III-III in Fig. 1; and Fig. 4 shows a partial plan view - partially sectioned - of the rotors according to the invention. As shown in Figure 1, the extruder according to the invention comprises a base 1 having arranged on it uprights 2 and 3, the respective upper surfaces 2a and 3a of which are parallel with one another and inclined towards the front part of the machine by a suitable angle. The front uprights 2 support the housing 4 containing the rotors 5, while the rear uprights 3 support a casing 6 containing a reducer associated with each rotor 5. The top part of the rear wall 6a of the casing 6 has housed inside it first radial bearings 6c for supporting the rotors 5, while the front wall 6b of the casing 6 has integral with it two housings 8 containing second radial bearings 8c supporting the rotors 5 and thrust bearings 8a. Said housing 8 is rigidly connected to a flange 8b divided into two halves along a directrix parallel to the longitudinal axis of the machine and designed for front coupling with a corresponding flange 4b of said housing 4. Said division into two halves of the flanges 8b, 4b allows easy opening of the housings 4, 8, respectively. The bottom part of the casing 6 has instead integral with it the devices 10 for receiving the driving movement from the motor 11 and for synchronized transmission thereof to the two reducers 7. The entire arrangement of the parts described above which form the extruder is realized so as to give rise to an angle of convergency of the axes of the two rotors 5 and a downwards inclination of the entire mixing and extruding part of the machine, corresponding to the front part of the machine itself so as to facilitate feeding of the material towards the extrusion head 9, avoiding stagnation of the material to be extruded. More particularly, each device 10 for synchronized transmission of the movement consists of a housing 10a on the opposite faces 10b of which there are arranged the bearings 12a for supporting a shaft 12 carrying a conical toothed wheel 13a of a bevel gear 13, the other conical wheel 13b of which is mounted on a shaft 14 which rotates on bearings 14a fixed to the opposite front walls 6a of the casing 6. Said shafts 14 are arranged with their axis parallel to the axis of the associated rotor 5; consequently, on account of the said angle of convergency existing between the axes of the two rotors 5, the shafts 14 are also arranged at the same angle with respect to each other. This means that, since the shafts 12 of the transmission and synchronization devices 10 have to be kept coaxial, the bevel gears 13a, 13b must be meshed at a corresponding angle which allows recovery of the angle existing between the axes of the rotors. According to an embodiment of the extruder according to the invention, said angle is comprised between 10° and 20° and preferably between 14° and 18°. In addition to the above, it is also obvious how, on account of the reduction resulting from the bevel gear pair 13, the shaft 14 parallel to the axis of the rotor 5 has a lower speed than the high-speed shaft 12 which is driven directly by the motor 11. The shaft 14 has mounted on it a first cylindrical gear 7a of the reducer 7, the last gear 7b of which is keyed onto the shaft 5a of the associated rotor 5. The two coaxial shafts 12 of the devices 10 for transmission and synchronization of the movement are connected together via a central coupling 15 which is formed by two bell members 15a which are internally toothed and designed to be inserted onto a toothed hub 12a mounted on each shaft 12 and by a central tubular section 15b flanged at its opposite ends for locking, via screw means, to corresponding flanges of said bell members 15a. This coupling therefore allows the possibility of fine adjustment of the phase difference between the two shafts 12 since it is sufficient to unscrew the tubular element 15b, extracting it from its coaxial position, remove one of the two bell members 15a, rotate the hub 12a even by only one tooth, and restore the connection by means of the coupling, so as to obtain in a rapid and safe manner a precise phase difference between the two rotors 5. According to a preferred embodiment and as illustrated more clearly in Fig. 4, the said rotors 5 are formed in two separate parts consisting of the said drive shaft 5a and the threaded part 5b; the shaft 5a is supported at the rear by the associated radial bearings 8c, 6c and by the thrust bearing 8a, respectively housed in the casing 6 and in the housing 8 arranged between and integral with the casing 6 itself and the housing 4 containing the rotors 5. Said shaft has a front flange 5c with, emerging from it, a conical journal 5d for coupling with a corresponding conical seat 5f formed in the threaded part 5b of the rotor 5, so that insertion of the latter onto the shaft is performed with a self-centering action and with friction which contributes to transmission of the movement. The angular positioning and locking of the threaded part 5b to the shaft 5a is performed by means of pins 16 and screws 17 arranged between respective front-abutting flanges of the two parts 5a, 5b of the rotor 5 to be joined. From the configuration described above it is therefore obvious how the twin-screw extruder has features of extreme compactness and structural rigidity resulting, among other things, from the fact that the movement reducer group is mounted on the support structure integral with the base, the radial flexural loads generated on the screw during mixing thus being compensated for. A further characteristic feature of the extruder according to the invention consists in the fact the devices for transmission and synchronization of the movement are in turn integral with the fixed structure of the extruder, thus enabling the high-speed shafts of the transmission to be kept coaxial without the substantial need for elements for recovery of the angular play, such as universal joints and the like. In addition to this, an obvious advantage is the possibility of replacing only the threaded part of the rotor without having to extract the drive shaft - extraction which would require the disassembly of a much larger number of heavy and delicate parts of the movement transmission devices, allowing moreover zero-load testing of the transmission members to be performed. Many variations may be introduced as regards the realization of the parts which make up the invention, without thereby departing from the protective scope of the present invention as defined by the claims which follow.

Claims: Machine with two generally converging threaded rotors (5) for the extrusion of plastomers, elastomers and the like, comprising a structure (1, 2, 3) supporting a housing (4) containing the rotors (5), a casing (6) containing a pair of reducers (7), each associated with the corresponding rotor (5), a device (11) for generating the movement and devices (10) for synchronized transmission thereof to the two reducers (7), said reducers (7) having cylindrical gears (7a, 7b) with axes parallel to the axis of the respective rotor (5), characterized in that said housing containing the rotors (5) and said casing (6) containing the reducers are rigidly fixed to the support structure (1, 2, 3) and integrally connected together via a housing (8) arranged between the two and containing first means (8a, 8c) for supporting the rotors (5) ; said rotors are formed in two separate parts (5a, 5b), removably joined to one another by means of associated centering means (5d, 5f), angular positioning means (16) and locking means (17); said devices (10) for synchronized transmission of the movement are integral with the bottom part of the said casing (6); each high-speed shaft (12) of said devices (10) for synchronized transmission of the movement is arranged along an axis forming an angle with the axis of the associated rotor (5) and is coaxial with the high-speed shaft of the other synchronized transmission device; said high-speed drive shafts (12) are coupled to the first shaft (14) of the respective reducer (7) via a bevel gear (13). Machine according to Claim 1, characterized in that said casing (6) containing the reducers (7) is formed as one piece. Machine according to Claim 1, characterized in that said casing (6) containing the reducers (7) consists of two semi-casings fixed to one another in the region of the plane of vertical symmetry of the machine. Machine according to Claim 1, characterized in that one of said parts forming the rotor (5) consists of a shaft (5a) for receiving the driving movement, and the other part (5b) has a variable-pitch threading. Machine according to Claim 4, characterized in that the drive shaft (5a) of the rotor (5) is supported by radial bearings (6c, 8c) housed in the said casing (6) and in the housing (8) arranged between the casing (6) itself and the housing (4) containing the rotors (5), as well as by thrust bearings (8a) mounted on the housing (8). Machine according to Claim 1, characterized in that said bevel gearing connecting the shaft (12) of the movement transmission device and the first shaft (14) of the reducer (7) has a conical coupling surface inclined at an angle other than 90°. Machine according to Claim 1, characterized in that said first shaft (14) of the reducer (7) rotates at a lower speed than the shaft (12) for receiving the driving movement from the actuating device (11). Machine according to Claim 1, characterized in that said shafts (12) of the devices (10) for synchronized transmission of the movement are axially connected together in rotation via a fixed horizontal coupling (15). Machine according to Claim 8, characterized in that said fixed horizontal coupling consists of two bell members (15a) which are internally toothed and designed to be inserted onto a toothed hub (12a) mounted on each shaft (12), and a central tubular section (15b) flanged at its opposite ends for locking, via screw means, to corresponding flanges of said bell members (15a).

Inventors: GIANI MAURO MATTEO, GIANI, MAURO MATTEO
Applicants: TECHINT SPA, TECHINT COMPAGNIA TECNICA INTERNAZIONALE S.P.A.
Application year: 1996
Main classification: B29C47
IPC codes: B29C47