Patent ID: 7235219

Claim:
An apparatus for removing additive components from a thermoplastic resin composition comprising: means of charging a solvent to said thermoplastic resin containing said additive components for dissolving at least part of the additive components, said solvent having a solubility parameter that is not smaller than a solubility parameter of said thermoplastic resin+1, selected from the group consisting of glycol solvents, glycol ether solvents, lactate solvents, or alcohol solvents having five or more carbon atoms and mixtures thereof; means of heating to a temperature ranging from the glass transition temperature of said thermoplastic resin to the boiling point of said solvent inclusive; extruder means of continuously kneading said thermoplastic resin composition containing the additive and said solvent for physically extracting additive components from said thermoplastic resin, wherein said extruder means further comprises a resin extrusion section for extruding said kneaded and molten thermoplastic resin composition recycled by removing extracted solvent components, at the leading end; and drainage means of downwardly discharging solvent in a liquid state, the discharged solvent containing additive components extracted from the thermoplastic resin and dissolved in the solvent, wherein the drainage means for discharging the solvent in a liquid state in which at least part of said additive is dissolved is disposed at a lower side of the apparatus than said extruder means.