Extruder for plastic resin

Single shaft, barrier type extruder having wide helical passages and adapted to produce plug flow in the solid resin and drag flow in the melted resin. The solid resin particles are compressed (at 30) to a pressure near the requirement of the die apparatus, by a grooved barrel, solids feed stage. The solids passage in the barrier region has width that corresponds to the width of the solid passage from the pressurization stage (30), enabling effective transmission of conveying pressure through a relatively undisturbed, compact column of solids. The melt passage has similar width and increases in depth along the length of the barrier to approach drag flow conditions. Mixing of molten resin with a neutral pressure gradient is achieved with a special array of pins (62, Fig. 6) that provide sufficient forwarding to overcome mixing losses. A homogeneous melt of uniform temperature and viscosity can thus be achieved at high flow rate despite large back pressure.