Macro Engineering & Technology Inc. from Mississauga, Ontario has developed a new feed section for its MacroPlast extruders that allows their conversion from a smooth bore to a grooved feed or vice versa. The new feed section, dubbed Exxfeed for "exchangeable extruder feed" section will come standard with every MacroPlast extruder. Customers will have the option of buying a MacroPlast extruder with an Exxfeed section retrofitted as smooth feed or as grooved feed. Should their product range change in the future, the extruder can be converted from one type of feed to the other in three to five hours.

Grooved feed extruders are traditionally known for higher output, better power efficiency, and lower melt temperature when compared to a smooth bore extruder of the same size. Their main limitation was circumscribed to their loss in performance when processing soft pellet resins, regrind, and fluff. Dr. Felix Guberman, Macro's R&D and Product Manager for Blown Film states that, "When a MacroPlast extruder is fitted with a grooved Exxfeed section, it will not only perform well with standard materials such as LDPE, LLDPE and HDPE, but with metallocene LLDPE and soft pellet resins such as very low density polyethylene, with output increases of up to 50%, with better melt quality, and lower melt temperature. In the cases where the extruder is used to process powdered resins, regrind, fluff or very soft rubber compounds, the MacroPlast with a smooth bore Exxfeed section is still the best option."

In order to educate and respond to questions from its customers on this new technology and assist them with trials, Macro has a 2.50" MacroPlast extruder with an Exxfeed section in its lab facilities.