Development of a Testing Station for Empirical Verification of the Algebraic Model of Dry Ice Piston Extrusion

Efficient use of resources is a very important consideration for every production process, especially where waste materials are used as raw materials. One example of these kinds of processes is dry ice extrusion. Based on the subject literature, it can be observed that the machines available in the market that are used to compress dry ice are characterized by high working force value. This leads to low efficiency of resource consumption, in regards to both electrical energy and carbon dioxide. This paper presents a proposed design of a test stand used for measuring compression force as a function of piston displacement in the course of the dry ice extrusion. The first part of the article presents the testing methodology and test stand design. The second part presents the results of measurement of compression force as a function of piston displacement with three different die types. The results of the study allowed to establish the difference between the values of the measured limit force and the values calculated with an analytical model. The test stand design and the results presented in this paper are important for further research and development works in the area of efficient extrusion and compaction of dry ice.