GEA has rounded out its xTru Twin series of high-capacity extruders for the food industries with the flagship xTru Twin 140. The new top-of-the-range machine is equipped with an advanced profile: powered screws provide users up to 40 % increased capacity with the same efficiency, quality and footprint as previous models. Additionally, this high-capacity technology can be applied to the other models of the GEA xTru Twin extruders, too – models 70/92/112 – and retrofitted to older machines to increase their capacity without changing the floorplan of the factory.

The xTru Twin extruders offer the flexibility to produce a wide range of products including cereal-based snack pellets die-cut, 2D, 3D, multilayers, square shape, punched and direct expanded, as well as breakfast cereals and any other extruded food products. The latest xTru Twin 140 has a production capacity of over 3 t of pellets an hour.

To achieve the additional capacity GEA engineers increased the cross-sectional area, rotation speed and pitch of the screws on the new machines while maintaining the extruder footprint and screw length. This also allows customers to upgrade existing machines without buying a new one or changing the plant layout.

Other key features of the xTru Twin range include a high-speed premixer for perfectly hydrating flour, a large, curved mixing vessel that facilitates good water absorption and adhering to the requisite hygiene standards, a vertical forced feeding screw to control the dough’s movement into the cooking screw, a powerful, variable speed motor with a safety clutch, and a high-torque, double cascade gearbox that ensures excellent power reserves and safety. With its co-rotating, fully intermeshing twin screws, a modular barrel assists in properly cooking cereal-based dough. All in all, the new technology gives users flexibility to develop new products.