Kurimoto, Ltd.
About us
Kurimoto, Ltd. was founded in 1909 in Osaka, Japan.
Driven by our philosophy "Manufacturing the future", we develop and manufacture industrial machinery.
More than a century of experience has shaped our expertise, which we continuously expand and adapt to new requirements to act in line with our philosophy.
One of our core areas is powder processing technology. Our product portfolio in this field includes equipment for mixing, reacting, granulating, drying, and calcining. Our flagship product is the KRC Kneader – a continuous twin-screw kneader that can be used not only for mixing but also for reacting.
Products & services
KRC Kneader
The KRC Kneader is a horizontal twin-shaft continuous kneading and reacting processor. It is our flagship product with more than 50 years of delivery experience. Key features of our KRC Kneader are excellent mixing performance and high flexibility. The excellent mixing performance is due to its unique structure: The clearance between the paddles on both shafts, as well as the clearance between these paddles and the barrel wall, is kept to a minimum to ensure efficient and uniform mixing. Our KRC Kneader offers flexible configuration options adapted to the intended application. The paddles and screws are modular and can be rearranged individually to control residence time and axial pressure distribution to the material. It can also be manufactured with a variety of materials. Both ends of the shafts are held by bearings, so that the counterpart paddles and screws, or the paddles, screws and the barrel wall never make contact. This non-contact structure allows for the selection of not only wear-resistant materials but also corrosion-resistant ones, such as stainless steel. The KRC Kneader is available in a wide range of sizes - from compact laboratory scale machines to large scale ones for serial production. In the plastics industry, the KRC Kneader is mainly used for the polymerization of engineering plastics such as POM and TPU, as well as for kneading thermosetting plastics and for the dissolution or crystallization of polymers.
KRC S1 Lab-scale kneader
With a screw diameter of 25 mm and a required installation footprint of about 1m2, the KRC S1 Lab-scale kneader is the most compact kneader in our product portfolio. The effective volume is 120 ml. Therefore, trials are already possible with a small amount of material. The split barrel with clamshell design provides easy access, makes cleaning straightforward and simplifies material changeovers. The material can be heated by using an electric jacket heater, while cooling will be achieved by integrated water channels inside the barrel wall. Based on trial results obtained with our KRC S1 Lab-scale kneader, we also offer scale-up to serial production size kneaders upon request.
HB Reactor
The HB Reactor is a horizontal twin-shaft reacting processor. This product was added to our lineup in 2015 and was developed based on the construction principles of our proven KRC Kneader. Both ends of the shafts are held by bearings, so that the counterpart paddles, or the paddles and the barrel wall never make contact. Special paddles and the gear pump installed at the outlet ensure a long residence time of the materials inside of the barrel. Through this, the HB Reactor is suitable for any complex reaction processes that require a residence time of more than 10 minutes. The paddles are modular, so that the paddle pattern can be adjusted according to the intended application. Another feature is the barrel shape, which is larger in volume than that of the KRC Kneader. This shape further enhances the reaction-promoting effect by increasing the available reaction space. The simultaneous dynamic change of the reactive surface by the rotating paddles intensifies the surface renewal effect of the materials inside the barrel in addition. The barrel can be operated under vacuum condition up to 133 Pa absolute. Furthermore, the barrel is available for high temperatures up to 350℃. In the plastics industry, the HB Reactor is especially used for polycondensation (e.g. polyamide, LCP, PET), solution polymerization (e.g. super absorbent polymer), emulsion polymerization (e.g. PLA) and monomer extraction and devolatilization (e.g. POM, special olefin series materials).
SCPD
The SCPD is a continuous, counterrotating twin-screw heating and cooling processor. It is designed for processing sticky and highly viscous materials and can be used for drying as well as for other purposes such as solvent recovery or crystallization. The acronym SCPD stands for Self Cleaning Processor – Different Speed type. As the product name suggests, the machine is characterized by asynchronously rotating screws (rotation speed ratio 2:1) with self cleaning properties. This asynchronous rotation prevents residue formation in the feed zone of the screws and ensures uniform and efficient material processing. Another key feature of the SCPD is the large heat transfer surface: Both screws are hollow and can be heated up with an appropriate heating medium in addition to the barrel jacket. This design enables an even and efficient heat transfer to the material which should be processed. If required, the barrel and the screws can also be cooled down using an appropriate cooling medium. Above the screws, an evaporation chamber is positioned along the entire length of the processor. This construction enables efficient degassing. The maximum operating temperature is 200 °C. In the plastics industry, the SCPD is especially used for desolvation from resin dope (e.g. Epoxy, Phenol, Acryl, S-SBR), for solvent removal from waste materials (e.g. PPS and adhesives) and for crystallization processes (e.g. Epoxy and Phenol).