The extruder was first developed to make lead pipes in the late 18th century. But the extrusion process technique quickly spread to other manufacturing sectors, including food, feed, and biomass products. An extruder machine presses a fluid or solid material through a die. Depending on your use case, extruders adopt single- or twin-screw systems to push the premixed feed material through a barrel. Thermal pressure applied in this step can chemically modify the mixture, so the screw system must be precisely calibrated to achieve the desired result. Finally, a knife head cuts the extruded material into your designed dimensions. Extrusion machinery produces items of a uniform size, shape, and consistency.