A material processing apparatus

Abstract

A material processing apparatus 10 has an outlet 18 to dispense a material, a conveyor 30, a heating arrangement 28, an ultrasonic sensor 20 configured to generate a sensor output signal indicative of at least one property of the heated material, and a control system configured to calculate the at least one property from measurements and generate a control system output signal corresponding to the at least one property of the heated material. Materials processing may comprise extrusion, injection moulding, blow moulding, 3D printing, compounding or melt processing operations. The conveyor may be an extruder comprising a screw; the outlet a nozzle or a die head. The material property may be gas, bubble, moisture, particulate content or solidification; density, bulk modulus, storage modulus, loss modulus or flow rate; melt flow index, viscosity, relaxation time or inferred molecular weight; or relative chain orientation. The apparatus may be used to identify material types and grades or key parameters in the field of plastics recycling. Figure 1