Extruder Application in Small Industries

Michael Adi M, F24160007

Extrusion is a process which a set of mixed ingredients are forced through an

opening in a perforated plate or die with a design specific to the food, and is then cut
to a specified size by blades (Harper 1978). Extrusion process offers high production
rates of product via a continuous, efficient system that ensures uniformity of the final
product (Riaz 2000). Extrusion process requires extruder machine. Extruder machine
basically combining the mixing, cooking, and forming process in one machines.
Extruder is very effective to create product from carbohydrate-based material (Brennan
2008). Extrusion can reduce production cost because its high productivity. But
extrusion process requires the “expensive” extruder machine. The question, is extruder
machine worthy for small industries to use extruder for their production?

I think it’s a good idea to apply extruder to small industries. In case of noodle
industries. Extruder machine can extremely reduce the production time. Conventional
noodle productions need around 1 hour to produce noodle. With extruder machine, it
only takes around 5 minutes to create noodle from the dough. Extruder will create more
product in shorter time, and the product is uniform. The extruder also very easy to use.
I have tried to use the extruder on the pilot plant to make noodles, and only take me a
minutes to understand how to use the extruder. I just have to put the dough continuously
to the extruder, and the noodles will formed automatically in minutes.

Although there are so many advantages from extruder machine, the use of
extruder in small industries is still not common. One main problem of the extruder
machine for small industries is the price. According to Alibaba.com, Extruder prices
starts form around 8.000 US dollar (111.964.400 rupiah). I personally think it’s a big
number for small industries in Indonesia. Extruder only produces uniform product in
one production time. It means you can’t get any variation of product for same
production time. Extruder also needs high power to run the operation, that small
industries may not afford. For example, a snack extruder that produces 150 kg snacks
per hour requires 120 KW power to run.

In conclusion, it depends to the industries, whether they want to use extruder

or not. But I personally think small industries do not need to use extruder, because
I think small industries in Indonesia do not produce their product in high amount. The
extruder will be useless if the amount of production is low. High power requirements
of extruder also be a problem for small industries, especially home industries. Because
the extruder does not bring much benefit and extruder’s price is expensive, I think
extruder does not suit with small industries.

Glossarium:

Brennan, Margaret A.; Monro, John A.; Brennan, Charles S. 2008. Effect of inclusion
of soluble and insoluble fibres into extruded breakfast cereal products made
with reverse screw configuration. International Journal of Food Science &
Technology. 43 (12): 2278–2288.

Harper JM. 1978. Food extrusion. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition. 11
(2): 155–215.

Riaz, Mian N. (2000). Extruders in Food Applications. Florida (US) CRC Press.