Automatik Plastics Machinery, and its subsidiary in the US, Automatik, have teamed up with American Leistritz Extrusion, and helped place a state of the art compounding line at the Polymers Center of Excellence in Charlotte (North Carolina). The extruder is a Leistritz Extrusiontechnik ZSE-50 MAXX, vented, co-rotating, twin screw. The Automatik pelletizer is a Sphero 70 with a Centro 150 integrated water system and dryer. The system is controlled such as to permit Polymers Center of Excellence to perform both small batch trials, as well as longer experimental production runs. The line is augmented with Brabender loss in weight feeders capable of metering pellets, granules, fibres and powders.