Development of a Screw Pump for High-Viscosity Liquid

One method of conveying the reactants in reactors is to use a screw pump. In this study, we fabricated and experimented with a screw pump based on a general extruder. In a typical extruder, the pitch of the screw flights is the same and the diameter of the screw shaft increases gradually. However, an extruder with an increased shaft diameter is disadvantageous because it is difficult to combine it with the screw flights and shaft. The screw pump in this study had the same diameter and decreased the pitch of the screw flights, thus making it easier to manufacture a screw pump. In this study, we confirmed the flow rate of the screw pump manufactured using an extruder and analyzed experimental results. We estimated the difference between the theoretical and the experimental values as the leakage flow that occurs at the clearance between the screw flight and the pump barrel.