3–4 T/H Basa Fish Feed Extruder Machine in Philippines

The Project Started With One Narrow Product Decision

The customer did not buy the extruder to make tilapia feed on Monday, shrimp feed on Tuesday, pet food on Wednesday and several other products whenever an order appeared. The commercial target was much narrower: a floating grower feed for pangasius, also known in the Philippine market as cream dory and commonly associated with the search term basa.

That narrower product plan matters. It gives the mill one formulation family, one principal pellet diameter and one buoyancy target to stabilize during commissioning. It also reduces the number of changes in die configuration, screw setup, drying conditions and coating recipes during the early production period.

The project target is approximately 7,500 tonnes of this feed annually. That is large enough to justify an industrial twin-screw extruder, but still within the range of a single SPHS120×2 fish feed extruder running mainly on one shift.

Production Envelope for the SPHS120×2

The 3–4 T/H figure is an extrusion range, not a promise that every formula will run at 4 T/H. Protein sources, starch type, fat level, fiber, incoming moisture, grinding fineness, screw configuration and required product density can all move the practical output within or below that range.

The 3–4 T/H Number Only Works If Fine Grinding Is Ready

The existing mill previously prepared conventional feed with a coarser grind. That was one of the first interfaces reviewed before the new extruder was added. Extrusion feed requires much tighter particle-size control than an ordinary livestock mash.

For the 4 mm pangasius product, the project works with a fine-ground mixture around approximately 0.5–0.8 mm, with oversized particles controlled before the mash reaches the conditioner. Fine grinding supports more uniform hydration and cooking inside the extrusion system and reduces the risk of large particles disturbing die flow or finished-feed structure.

The customer therefore did not treat the SPHS120×2 as a machine that could correct coarse grinding upstream. The pulverizing section had to deliver material suitable for aquafeed first.

There Is No Fixed Philippine Pangasius Formula

The mill has access to rice-derived ingredients, maize products and locally traded or imported protein materials, but those ingredients are not locked into percentages such as 30% soybean meal, 25% rice bran and 10% fishmeal.

The nutritionist sets the formula according to fish size, nutrient specification, ingredient analysis and current raw-material availability. Starch-bearing ingredients also have a technological role because extrusion behavior and expansion depend partly on the starch system, but increasing starch only to make a pellet float would be the wrong formulation approach.

Extrusion settings must follow a nutritionally valid formula, not force the nutritionist to design the diet around the machine.

Floatability Is Built Across the Process, Not by the Twin Screws Alone

The customer wanted floating pangasius feed because farmers can see how feed is being consumed at the water surface and adjust feeding accordingly. That requirement led to extrusion rather than ordinary ring-die pelleting.

But the extruder does not carry a fixed setting labelled “100% floating.” Product density develops from the interaction of formula, fine grinding, pre-conditioning, water and steam addition, screw configuration, mechanical shear, barrel conditions, die geometry and pressure release at the die.

The twin-screw design gives the operator useful control over mixing and thermo-mechanical processing, particularly when formulas change. Even so, commissioning is based on actual bulk density and water testing of the finished feed rather than assuming that every 4 mm pellet leaving a twin-screw machine will float for the same period.

A Standalone Extruder Still Needs a Dryer

This was one of the most important integration checks in the project. Extrusion is not the last stage of floating fish feed production. The feed leaves the extruder hot and with substantially more moisture than a finished bagged aquafeed can safely retain.

After cutting, the wet extrudate therefore enters the customer's existing drying section. Product moisture is reduced to approximately 9–11% according to the final feed specification, then the pellets are cooled before screening and liquid coating.

The operating sequence is fine grinding → batching and mixing → pre-conditioning → SPHS120×2 extrusion → drying → cooling → screening → oil coating → finished-feed handling.

A customer that has only a grinder and mixer cannot simply purchase this extruder and begin packing commercial floating feed. Dryer capacity, cooler capacity and downstream product handling have to be solved at the same time.

The Dryer Had to Be Checked Against the New Extruder

The plant already owned downstream thermal equipment, but existing equipment is useful only if its mass flow matches the new extrusion section. A 3–4 T/H extruder can create a larger wet-product load than a dryer originally selected for a smaller line.

RICHI therefore checked the dryer's evaporation capacity rather than comparing only its nominal tonnes per hour. Extrudate moisture after processing, targeted final moisture and actual product rate determine how much water the dryer must remove.

The same review was carried downstream to the cooler, screener and coater. Otherwise, installing a higher-capacity extruder would simply move the plant bottleneck one machine further along the line.

The Philippines Market Makes This a Specialist Case

Pangasius is not presented here as the dominant freshwater aquaculture species in the Philippines. Milkfish and tilapia occupy much larger positions in national aquaculture production, while pangasius remains a smaller specialized segment.

That is exactly why the Central Luzon customer treats this as a focused product rather than a mass-market replacement for its entire aquafeed portfolio. Commercial pangasius culture does exist in the country, including farms in Luzon, and national aquaculture rules specifically cover pangasius culture and feed management.

The mill's location near Pampanga also places it inside one of the country's strongest aquaculture regions and within trucking reach of customers elsewhere in Luzon.

7,500 Tonnes per Year Closes With One Extruder

The annual target was checked against effective extrusion hours rather than selected from a marketing capacity table.

• At 4 T/H, 7,500 tonnes require approximately 1,875 effective extrusion hours per year.
• At 3 T/H, the same volume requires approximately 2,500 effective hours.
• Across 300 production days, the requirement is roughly 6.3–8.3 effective extrusion hours per day.

This puts the product within a realistic one-shift operating envelope while preserving time for warm-up, formula preparation, cleaning and routine maintenance. It also leaves the mill some scheduling room instead of assuming continuous production at the maximum nameplate rate.

Commissioning Focused on Four Product Checks

The first commercial batches are not judged only by whether pellets come out of the die. The customer needs several linked measurements before releasing a formula to regular production.

1. Check the actual particle-size distribution of the prepared mash before extrusion.
2. Measure finished pellet diameter and bulk density after drying and cooling.
3. Test floating behavior and water stability using representative finished-product samples.
4. Confirm final moisture after drying and verify that coating does not create excessive surface oil or handling problems.

These checks also provide a better basis for adjusting the extruder than relying on one fixed barrel temperature, one starch percentage or one claimed floating rate for every batch.

From Qingdao to a Central Luzon Feed Mill

The SPHS120×2 is shipped from Qingdao for entry through the Manila container port system before inland delivery toward Pampanga. The machine is protected for ocean transport with particular attention to the gearbox, screw assemblies, conditioner and electrical components.

Before dispatch, the interface drawings are checked against the customer's existing feed conveyor, conditioner elevation, dryer inlet, electrical supply and maintenance access. Because the project reuses both upstream and downstream equipment, those connection points matter as much as the footprint of the extruder itself.

The Six Numbers RICHI Needs Before Recommending This Machine

For another producer considering a Basa Fish Feed Extruder Machine in Philippines, the fastest way to determine whether the SPHS120×2 is appropriate is not to start with a catalog. Start with six numbers: required annual feed tonnage, expected T/H, prepared mash particle size, finished pellet diameter, moisture entering the downstream dryer and final moisture after drying.

RICHI Machinery also needs the intended floating or sinking behavior, major formula characteristics and the capacities of the existing grinder, mixer, dryer, cooler and coating section. With those figures, the extruder can be evaluated as part of a real mass-flow system instead of being selected as an isolated 110 kW machine.