History of extruding machine

Literally, extrusion means the action of pushing out in Latin. It refers to a process by which a liquid to a semiliquid product is forced through a die opening of the desired cross section.

Extrusion has been used for industrial applications like rubber and plastics since the late 19th century. Only since the 1930s has it been applied to food products.

The earliest documented example of an extrusion processing machine is a rubber masticator consisting of a toothed rotor turned by a winch inside a toothed cylindrical cavity.

Thomas Hancock developed it in 1820 in England, to reclaim scraps of processed natural rubber.

Later in 1845 a patent was filed by Richard Brooman and modified by Henry Bewley, for the extrusion of Gutta Percha to coat copper conductors.

The birth of extruder, which plays such a dominant role in polymer processing, is linked to the 1879 patent of Mathew Gray in England. At the same time Royle in the United States also developed a screw machine. 

Sausage extruders were developed in the nineteenth century as simple forming machines. Eventually pasta was produce in extruders.

Flour and water were added at one end of the machine, and a screw mixed and compressed the dough before extruding it through numerous holes or dies.

There is a broad variety of twin and multiple screws mixers and extruders; many of them are used in the food industry.

During the 1930s heat was added to the barrel containing the screw; puffed corn curl snacks resulted. During that time food extrusion began with the use of single-single screw extruders to form and shape macaroni and ready to eat cereals.

Proteins and starches are subjected to high temperatures, pressure and shear rates inside the barrel of the extruder, where a screw routes at high speed.
History of extruding machine