From Waste to Value – BB Engineering Sets Standards in PET Recycling

BB Engineering (BBE) specializes in high-quality machine solutions for polymer processing – with a particular focus on recycling. The medium-sized engineering company from Germany is a joint venture between the two industry leaders Oerlikon Barmag (spinning technology) and Brückner (film line technology). Since its foundation in 1998, BBE has pooled the expertise of both parent companies in the fields of extrusion, filtration and synthetic fiber spinning – and applies this in a targeted manner to the development of sustainable solutions.

Today, BBE employs around 160 people in Germany. All systems are developed, designed and pre-assembled at the main site and delivered worldwide. For the Asian market, the company has another production site in Suzhou, China. BBE has a particularly strong presence in Turkey, where numerous yarn manufacturers rely on German system technology and BBE’s service quality.

Recycling Solutions for the Textile Industry: Efficiency Meets Quality

BB Engineering offers customized solutions for textile PET recycling: from filament to filament, flake to filament or postconsumer material to chips. These key technologies illustrate BBE’s expertise in this field:

VarioFil® – Direct extrusion of rPET and bottle flakes

The VarioFil® spinning system is ideal for manufacturers with a diverse product range, small batch sizes or special applications. Especially with regard to recycling processes: In addition to rPET chips, VarioFil also processes bottle flakes or spinning mill production waste – without intermediate stages. The flakes or spinning waste are melted directly at a throughput of up to 980 kg/h and spun into POY. VarioFil® offers excellent yarn qualities with high flexibility that meet the highest demands.

VacuFil® with Visco+® – Intelligent PET-recycling for textile applications

VacuFil® is a customizable system that is specially designed to meet the requirements of the textile industry. In addition to classic bottle flakes, production waste, fibers and fabrics can also be processed as input material. The special feature: The processed melt can either be pelletized, fed into the main mass flow or spun directly back into filament yarn. In in-house trials on Fiber2Fiber recycling, yarn waste from production was processed with VacuFil® and the melt was spun directly with VarioFil®. The manufacturing performance and yarn values were comparable with virgin material. The key component here is Visco+®, a liquid phase polycondensation that specifically adjusts the viscosity of the PET. This produces a homogeneous melt with optimum properties for the respective end product – at throughputs of up to 25 tons/day.

COBRA – Super efficient continuous large-area fine filter

Another highlight in the portfolio is the newly developed COBRA melt filter. The continuously operating large-area fine filter is equipped with automatic valve switching and inline intermediate cleaning. This unique system enables uninterrupted operation with a constantly high filtration performance – a decisive efficiency advantage in the processing of recycling materials. It offers a maximum filter area of 24 m² with a throughput of max. 4000 kg/h.

Extrusion – Decades of experience for absolutely homogenous melt

Producing a homogeneous melt is hugely challenging, but necessary in order to manufacture certain end products –particularly using rPET. In terms of rPET we offer single-screw extruders (25-4000 kg/h output with a screw diameter of 60-360 mm), extrusion cascades as well as mixers and melt pumps for recycling post-production/ post-consumer PET waste or processing rPET chips.

BB Engineering GmbH | www.bbeng.de | sales@bbeng.de