Pet Food & Animal Nutrition Manufacturing worked example

Extrusion Throughput at 99% extruder uptime: a worked example in pet food & animal nutrition manufacturing

What does the result look like when extruder uptime reaches 99%? The full calculation is worked below with real intermediate numbers. Use it when extrusion throughput in pet food and animal nutrition manufacturing is being asked to take on more work and you need to know if there is room.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Kibble output per extruder cycle: 4 units / cycle (unchanged)
  • Available extruder cycles per shift: 480 cycles (unchanged)
  • Extruder uptime (die not fouled/purging): 99 % (raised for this scenario; the documented default is 90)
  • First-pass yield after screening: 97 % (unchanged)

Working through the calculation

  • Applying the documented formula (Gross extrusion throughput capacity = extrusion throughput output per cycle × available extrusion throughput cycles) to the inputs above produces each figure below.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 1,844 units for good extrusion throughput capacity, the number this scenario is built around.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 1,920 units for gross extrusion throughput capacity.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 19.2 units for extrusion throughput downtime loss.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 57.02 units for extrusion throughput yield loss.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where extruder uptime sits at 90% and the headline result is 1,676 units, this scenario comes in 10% above the baseline at 1,844 units.
  • A figure at this level is achievable when extruder uptime is genuinely sustained, not just peaked for a shift. It treats uptime and yield as flat averages, so a line with a few long fault stops (steam loss, plugged die) behaves worse than the single figure suggests; feed and moisture variation between kibble shapes is not modeled.

Results at a glance

  • Good extrusion throughput capacity: 1,844 units (headline result)
  • Gross extrusion throughput capacity: 1,920 units
  • Extrusion throughput downtime loss: 19.2 units
  • Extrusion throughput yield loss: 57.02 units

Run it with your numbers

  • Every input above is editable in the live Extrusion Throughput calculator, which recalculates instantly and can be shared with the inputs intact.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.