SOME FACTORS INFLUENCING PELLET CHARACTERISTICS MADE BY AN EXTRUSION/SPHERONISATION PROCESS .1. EFFECTS ON SIZE CHARACTERISTICS AND MOISTURE-CONTENT DECREASE OF PELLETS

The effect of five process parameters - speed of extrusion, speed of spheronisation, time of spheronisation, load of the spheronizer, moisture content of the wet granulated mass - were investigated on size distribution parameters /e.g main sieve fraction, sieve fraction < 0.40 mm, sieve fraction > 1.60 mm and the calculated mean diameter / of the pellets obtained by an extrusion / spheronisation process and on the moisture content decrease during manufacturing from the beginning of extrusion to the end of spheronisation. The significant factors and interactions were determined and characterised by multilinear regression. The study have revealed that the spheronizer speed, the time of spheronisation, the moisture content of the wet powder mass and the first order interactions of them have the most significant effect on the tested dependent variables.