Apparatus for removing volatile matters contained in polymers

Claim 1

Apparatus for producing a continuous polymer product and removing volatile matters contained therein comprising: a polymer chamber; a decompression vessel; a heating medium source means; and a polymer discharge device having a main body with an inlet end face connected to said polymer chamber and a discharge end face open to an interior of said decompression vessel, said main body being formed by a plurality of adjacent plates spaced apart by elongate fins extending between each pair of adjacent plates providing a plurality of passageways therebetween, wherein the fins spacing alternate pairs of said adjacent plates extend in one direction and the fins spacing intermediate pairs of said adjacent plates between said alternate pairs extend in a second direction oriented at an angle relative to said one direction; whereby said plurality of passageways defined between each alternate pair of adjacent plates provide polymer passageways between said inlet end face and said discharge end face of said main body and said plurality of passageways defined between each intermediate pair of adjacent plates provide angularly disposed passageways for a heating medium between said polymer passageways supplied thereto by said heating medium source means.