ABSTRACT
Abewildering variety of extrusion devices are used in today’s technology. The devices are constructed in many different ways and are given many different names. Squeezing a tube of toothpaste to cause a strand of paste to flow, or extrude, out of the tube gets across the basic idea of extrusion. A hand-driven meat grinder that causes raw meat to extrude as many small strands through a die plate is a more complicated extrusion device. A meat grinder can also have a cutter blade that skims across the die plate to cut the extruded strands into smaller particles or “collets.” We are all familiar with these simple devices, and they get across the concept of “extrusion” very well. By use of more sophisticated devices, plastic is “extruded” into tubing and moldings, and precooked wheat is extruded into spaghetti.
