Patent ID: 7938637

Claim:
A device for de-aerating a highly-filled, high-viscosity paste, the device comprising: (a) a housing having: (i) a chamber, said chamber having a feed opening for receiving a highly-filled paste having a viscosity exceeding 100 kilopascal·seconds; and (ii) a piston for urging the paste within a specified path within said chamber; (b) a splitting element disposed within said path of said piston, such that said urging by said piston in a presence of said splitting element effects a splitting of said highly-filled paste into a plurality of paste streams, so as to increase a surface area of the high-viscosity paste by a factor of at least 200, said splitting element having a plurality of openings for splitting said highly-filled paste, each of said openings having a cross-sectional area of less than 0.2 cm 2 ; and (c) a vacuum aperture fluidly associated with said housing, for operatively connecting to a vacuum system for de-aeration of said paste streams, so as to produce a de-aerated paste.