Core Working Principle of Puffing Extruder
Raw materials are subjected to high temperature and high pressure under screw extrusion; internal moisture vaporizes instantly. When materials exit the machine and pressure releases abruptly, volumetric expansion occurs to form porous finished products. Based on this mechanism, the applicable industries are sorted as below:
1. Snack Food Industry (Primary Application Field)
- Puffed casual snacks: prawn crackers, rice crust, puffed corn snacks, filled extruded food, 3D crispy snacks made from corn, wheat and potato starch.
- Ready-to-eat breakfast cereals: corn flakes, crispy cereal balls, instant oatmeal and meal replacement puffed grains.
- Functional food: infant nutritional rice powder, instant coarse grain rice, textured vegetable protein (artificial meat base material).
2. Animal Feed Manufacturing Industry (Second Largest Application)
- Pet feed: extruded dog food, cat food and feed for small pets with optimized digestibility.
- Aquatic feed: floating feed for fish & shrimp, slow-sink feed for turtle & crab with good water stability.
- Livestock feed: extruded corn and extruded soybean as high-digestibility raw material for piglet and dairy cow formula feed.
- Special breeding feed: extruded feed for frog, tortoise and ornamental fish.
3. Grain & Oil Deep Processing Industry
- Modified grain powder: extruded rice/corn flour for brewing and fermentation auxiliary materials.
- Oil pretreatment: extruded soybean to improve oil extraction efficiency during pressing.
- Raw material for bread crumbs & coating powder: puffing modification to enhance adhesion during deep-frying.
4. Pharmaceutical, Chemical & New Material Niche Industries
- Pharmacy: puffing pretreatment of herbal powder to boost active ingredient dissolution; modified medicinal starch production.
- Chemical industry: puffing modification of raw materials for adhesive and filler additives; pre-processing of biodegradable plastic pellets.
- Environmental protection: expanded fermentation substrate with porous structure for microbial cultivation.
Extruder Model Classification
- Single-screw extruder: mainly for small-scale snack and ordinary feed production.
- Twin-screw extruder: for complex-formula pet food, functional meal powder and textured vegetable protein.