Patent ID: 8539005

Claim:
A twin-screw extruder configuration system comprising: an extruder information database including details of extruders, extruder elements and extruder barrels; an extruder database configured to store extruder configurations; a user interface configured to receive user inputs including user choices of extruders, extruder elements or extruder barrels from the extruder information database; the user interface further configured to receive user-defined extruders, user-defined extruder elements or user-defined extruder barrels for addition to the extruder information database; an element positioning engine including a database of incompatible elements and configured to review user choices and prevent positioning of incompatible extruder elements adjacent to each other on an extruder; a processor configured to create a user-defined extruder configuration based on user inputs; and a display module configured to display the user-defined extruder configuration created based on the user inputs and at least one of the extruder configurations stored in the extruder database to allow a pictorial comparison of the user-defined extruder configuration and the at least one of the extruder configurations stored in the extruder database.