Extrusion is a method commonly used in the food processing industry. For decades, single-screw extrusion has been used to make common foods including spaghetti, macaroni, onion rings, corn curls, chip sticks, and more.
However, as snacking becomes more complex, with core fillings and unique textures, a growing number of food makers are switching to twin-screw extruders, which produce higher-quality items and offer greater adaptability. Twin-screw extruders, on the other hand, are much more expensive than single-screw extruders.
Which Extruder to Choose?
It can be difficult to select the best extruder for your plant. Single-screw extruders are less expensive to buy and operate. However, in terms of product quality and variety, they fall short of twin-screw extruders. In a world where every food manufacturer is moving towards more quality and better designs, single-screw extruders are quickly running out of popularity.
Companies that use single-screw extruders are frequently faced with challenges when it comes to increasing flexibility, quality, diversity, and throughput. Should they buy more single-screw extruders, which might increase output but not value? Or do you want to switch to twin-screw?
In this blog, we’ll compare both single-screw and twin-screw extruders and help you decide which one to choose for your snack manufacturing plant.
Single-Screw Extruder
A single-screw extruder is relatively much more affordable compared to a twin-screw extruder. This is because twin-screw extruders are a much simpler machine with not that complex designs and working systems. Similar to its price tag, single-screw extruders’ maintenance costs are much less than twin-screw extruders as well.
A single-screw extruder doesn’t have the same quality of mixing and heat transfer as compared to the twin-screw extruder, though. If you’re planning to expand, enhance your production levels, or incorporate more quality and designs in your snack products, then a single-screw extruder might not be suitable for you.
Twin-Screw Extruder
A twin-screw extruder is a big investment but if your production levels are high, and you want complex designs without any compromise on quality, your investment will definitely pay off.
Twin-screw extruders are complex machines that have the capability to produce high-quality snacks of multiple shapes, sizes, and designs. The co-rotating screws offer way better heat transfer, shearing, and mixing, and the final product is of a higher quality compared to single-screw extruders.
If you’re planning to get an extruder, make sure you get it from us at CFAM International. We are a leading industrial equipment manufacturer based in South Africa. We supply single-screw extruders and twin-screw extruders worldwide and offer extruder maintenance and training services as well. Contact us now for more information.