Method of and apparatus for the controlled feeding of a quantity of material into the intake opening of an extruder for processing rubber or plastics material

Claim 1

Apparatus for the controlled feeding of pieces of extrudable material into an intake opening of an extruder, comprising: (a) an extruder screw positioned at the bottom of said intake opening, (b) a feed roller disposed in said intake opening and having an effective working surface area exposed to material fed to said extruder through said intake opening, said extruder screw and feed roller being spaced to provide a gap therebetween, (c) a reciprocable control slide disposed above said feed roller and adapted to adjustably extend over said effective working surface area of said feed roller so as to vary said effective working surface, (d) means for sensing an excess store of material in said intake opening, said sensing means comprising a scanning means disposed in said intake opening above said extruder screw, said scanning means sensing the presence of a store of material in said intake opening, and thereafter signaling said control means, and (e) control means operated by said sensing means for controlling the position of said control slide, (whereby the quantity of material drawn into the intake opening and contacting the working surface of said feed roll can be limited to only that amount of material which can be processed without an excessively large buildup of material in the intake opening.