The equipment used was developed at Cardiff University and comprised of a ram-driven heated die connected to a Wykeham Farrance 10,000 kg press. Three heaters were used in total, two 250 W cartridge heaters in the die head itself and one 225 W collar heater, placed above the die to pre-heat the charge. Temperature was measured using a ‘K’ type thermocouple and control was maintained by a Proportional Integral Differential (PID) control system via a Watlow series 93 microprocessor unit. Material was forced through a 15 mm diameter die, to produce 15 mm cylindrical profiles, which would later be cut into pellets. A schematic of this equipment is shown in Fig. 1.