From the perspective of purposes, an extrusion bulking machine can be divided into cereal extruder machine(mainly used for puffing corn, millet, and other grain cereals), flour extruder(mainly used for puffing wheat and flour), soybean extruder (mainly used for puffing soybean) and feed extruder machine (mainly used for food extrusion, poultry feed or puffing single raw material). As a type of feed inflating machine, fish feed extruder, including single-screw fish feed extruders and double-screw fish feed extruders, is mainly designed for producing pellet feed for fish, shrimp, pets, and other aquaculture. With a higher feed conversion ratio, fish compound feed produced by a single screw fish feed extruder can maintain the high water quality of the fishpond.
Component Part of Single Screw Fish Feed Extruder
As the leading professional fish feed production line and fish feed machine series manufacturer, FANWAY Fish Feed Machinery has released two types of single screw fish feed extruders – dry type and wet type fish feed extruders so as to meet the ever-increasing demand for fish feed pellet production.
Dry-type single screw fish feed extruder
As the below figure shows, it’s clear that the dry type single screw fish feed extruder is chiefly composed of the electrical control cabinet, cutting motor, heating plate, extruding chamber, feeding device, feeding motor, and main motor.
With a simple structure, the machine is easy to operate. Before turning on the dry type fish feed extruder, users need to put feed raw materials into the machine through a feeding device, and the materials will be through hardening and tempering in the conditioner with high temperature and high pressure. With the propulsion plant, materials will be sent to the extruding chamber that consists of a screw and chamber and extruded and expanded under the action of extrusion, intense shearing, blending, and friction. When pushed out from the chamber, the feed pellet’s temperature and pressure become normal with the surroundings, making the moisture of the feed sharp vaporization, which makes the feed porous and fluffy, commonly called puffing. Moreover, dry-type single screw fish feed extruder also has different molds and cutting devices for producing feed pellets with various diameters and lengths.
Wet type single screw fish feed extruder
The following picture tells that the structure of the wet type single screw fish feed extruder is a bit more complicated than the dry type. Except for the control panel system, cutting motor, feeding advice, feeding motor, extruding chamber, and main motor, the wet type also contains an air outlet, conditioner motor, and pre-conditioner. Compared with dry type extruder, the biggest difference is that during the production process, wet type fish feed extruder is equipped with a boiler that needs to add water or steam into the machine in order to promote water content to 20%-30% while feed pellet moisture produced by dry type extruder ranges from 15%-20%. Meanwhile, bacteria and germ infections can be killed and cleaned under the action of high temperature and high pressure.
Currently, most types of equipment for feed extrusion are screw type, and for feed production, a single screw fish feed extruder is primarily used. When choosing a fish feed extruder machine, users can refer to the following situations provided:
★ Users should make sure enough electric power supply if choosing single screw fish feed extruder with high power consumption;
★ Choose the dry type of fish feed extruder with a cheaper price if no boiler;
★ Choose a single screw feed extruder with a large draw ratio (the ratio between screw length and diameter) if processing fish and shrimp feed;
★ Choose a fish feed extruder according to the daily requisite amount of feed.
Basic Functions of Single Screw Fish Feed Extruder
Taking aquatic feed fields for example, FANWAY will introduce the basic functions of this machine during the process of producing fish feed pellets.
◇ Cohesive function: In the extrusion process, feed raw material can combine closely and condense into discrete pieces.
◇ Degassing function: Blisters in the raw materials of feed will be eliminated during the expansion process.
◇ Dehydration function: In general, the water content of feed material will lost about 4%-7% on the original basis during the process of extruding fish feed.
◇ Expansion effect: the operation condition and configuration of a single screw fish feed extruder can control the density of pet feed and aquatic feed pellets, which is also called floating pellet or sinking pellet).
◇ Jelling function: High temperature and press extrusion process can make the starch(coming from raw material, like tuber or cereal) of fish or pet feed pellet pasting.
◇ Grinding function: in the feed material processing, raw materials will be ground to a certain extent within a single screw fish feed extruder machine.
◇ Homogenization function: This homogenization of the extruder can change the structure of unappealing raw material and make the material become a more acceptable form.
◇ Mixing effect: when extrusion processing, there are various screws and molds to choose from, which makes extruders produce the expected mixing capacity.
◇ Sterilization function: During the process of expanding feed, the Pasteurella bacterium of raw materials can be eliminated through extrusion technology.
FAQ about Single Screw Fish Feed Extruder:
Q: What is the biggest difference between dry-type and wet-type single screw fish feed extruder machines?
A: With the same power, the biggest difference is that the wet-type extruder with a larger capacity has a conditioner for a steam boiler while the dry type doesn’t, so the latter one is cheaper. Besides, feed pellets produced by wet-type fish feed extruder is much more smooth.
Q: What is the material requirement of a Fish Feed Machine?
A: The material selection is very wide, such as soybean meal, corn flour, wheat meal, bone meal, meat meal, fish meal, and so on. Here is the material requirement:
–Material moisture: 20%-25%
–Material type: powder
–Material fineness: 60 mesh – 80mesh
Q: How long does the fish feed produced by this machine float on the water?
A: These floating fish feed pellets can float on the water surface for more than 24 hours.
Q: Is it possible to use this extruder to produce pet feed pellets?
A: Yes. This machine can make floating and sinking aquatic feed and pet food pellets with different shapes and lengths.
Q: Is there a formula for making fish feed pellets?
A: The formula is always based on the practical situation of farmed fish. FANWAY can provide the formula for free.
Formula for young catfish |
Fish meal 50% |
Peanut bran 20% | |
corn powder 10% | |
Sweet potato powder 20% | |
Vitamin 2% | |
Formula for big catfish and other food fish |
Fish meal 15% |
soybean cake 20% | |
peanut cake 20% | |
corn flour 25% | |
Wheat bran 20% | |
salt 0.2% |
Click to learn more about fish feed formulation.
Q: What are the advantages of fish feed produced by the single screw fish feed extruder?
–Users can use the machine to produce both floating feed and sinking feed for fish and pets.
–With a long time floating on the water’s surface, floating feed is better absorbed and digested, avoiding feed waste and water pollution, which also makes it easy to observe the average capacity for eating.
–Under the action of high temperature and pressure, fish feed extruders can kill the colibacillus and salmonella easily, ensuring feed clean and sanitation for fish and pets.
–Feed pellets made by FANWAY fish feed extruder have a unique taste and high nutrition.
Q: What shape does a single screw fish feed extruder machine produce?
–For fish feed pellets, sizes range from 0.9mm to 15mm.
–For Pet feed pellets, there are nine shapes to choose from, including three prism shape, triangles, cross shape, square shape, plum shape, feet shape, wafer shape, large bone shape, and small bone shape.