MANUFACTURING AND ASSESMENT OF A LOCAL RING DIE EXTRUDER FOR PRODUCING DIFFERENT KINDS OF ANIMAL FEED PELLETS

The present research was carried out to manufacture and evaluate the performance of a ring die animal feed pellet extruder to produce two different kinds of cylindrical shape pellets (cattle feed pellets and rabbit feed pellets). The extruder performance was studied as a function of change in ring die hole diameter; formula feed rate and moisture content. Performance evaluation of the manufactured extruder was carried out in terms of extruder productivity, pelleting efficiency, pellets durability, required power, specific mechanical energy and operational cost. The experimental results revealed that extruder productivity, pelleting efficiency, pellets durability, specific mechanical energy and operational cost are in the optimum region under the following conditions: - Case of cattle feed pellets: 6 mm ring die hole diameter, 3.0 Mg/h formula feed rate and 14% (w.b.) formula moisture content. - Case of rabbit feed pellets: 2.5 mm ring die hole diameter, 2.0 Mg/h formula feed rate and 14% (w.b.) formula moisture content.