Patent ID: 7618180

Claim:
A kneading disk apparatus having an input and an output defining material flow direction, said kneading disk comprising: a cylinder; a plurality of disk elements disposed in direct contact with each other in the cylinder arranged along a screw axis, each disk element comprising at least two flight tips which are formed on an outer peripheral surface and are inclined at a helix angle θ to a line normal to the screw axis, wherein the plurality of disk elements are so arranged along the screw axis that the flight tips are shifted in position from each other at a shift angle A about the screw axis in a direction of forward feed so as to have a helical pattern and to feed a material in the direction of forward feed; and the flight tips of every disk element have substantially the same helix angle within a range of 90°<θ<180°, and extend at substantially the same height along an entire width of each disk element, wherein the flight tips extend in a direction of back feed to block the fed material; wherein a width of the disk element taken along the screw axis is set within a range of 0.1 to 0.9 times of an inside diameter of the cylinder.