In December last year, the Fraunhofer ICT and several partners launched the so-called InnoREX project to develop a ‘transparent extruder’ for the real-time control of changes in the chemical structure of materials, such as those occurring in reactive extrusions. The application of real-time analytics such as viscometry and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) will ensure a deep understanding of the process and full process control.
By developing such a system, molecular characteristics and the resulting product properties after reactive extrusion, for example, become controllable and as a result the material quality can be optimized. In this connection the research focuses strongly on new production technologies for biobased materials such as polylactic acid (PLA). By applying NIR spectroscopy within the processing length of a twin-screw extruder the researchers aim to develop a highly precise, metal-free polymerization of PLA using alternative energy sources in reactive extrusion. To ensure short market entry times, commercially well-established co-rotating twin-screw extruders will be used as reaction vessels.
The new analytic technology will be presented by researchers from the Fraunhofer ICT at the Analytica fair in Munich.
The „transparent extruder“for real-time monitoring of reactive extrusions (photo: Fraunhofer ICT)
