The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 14, 2002
Filed:
Nov. 20, 2000
Gordon R. Huber, Sabetha, KS (US);
Bradley L. Strahm, Sabetha, KS (US);
Eric S. Sevatson, Sabetha, KS (US);
David L. Kesler, Morrill, KS (US);
Wenger Manufacturing, Inc., Sabetha, KS (US);
Abstract
Combined extrusion/sonolation apparatus ( ) which is designed to continuously and efficiently incorporate components (e.g., liquid lipids or fats or meltable solids) into heterogeneous materials in order to form stable products. The apparatus ( ) includes an extruder ( ) having a barrel ( ) and restricted orifice outlet ( ); a sonolation device ( ) is directly coupled to the outlet ( ). Preferably a monitoring unit ( ) is located downstream of the sonolation device ( ) and is connected via a controller ( ) with the extruder ( ) and device ( ) so as to control the operation of the latter. In use, starting materials are fed into the extruder ( ) and are initially mixed, whereupon a component is injected through a barrel-mounted injector pipe ( ). The composite extrudate is treated within device ( ) by subjecting it to acoustic vibrations.