PRA March-April 2014 Feature-Recycling

Recycling Equipment

Reusing materials in the packaging industry At the Chinaplas show, recycling equipment makers will exhibit a range of machines for PET recycling, with a focus on producing food-grade regrind for packaging.

Vacurema has been proven to have the lowest energy use, according to independent testing

Erema ups the ante with reverse technology Austrian manufacturer Erema will be presenting its latest Intarema 1108 T system, boasting an output of 600 kg/hour when processing BOPP. With the patented Counter Current system, Erema says it set another milestone in recycling systems.

While the material in the cutter/ Erema compactor moved in the direction of will display its the extruder, in the Counter Current Intarema system the material spout in the 1108 T cutter/compactor is now reversed system and thus moves against the direction of the extruder.

The result of this inversetangential configuration is increased process stability and, at the same time, considerably higher output.

With over 30 years of success, more than 4,000 systems in operation throughout the world, Erema says its technology has become an established standard for the recycling of polyolefins and PET products.

Erema managed the major breakthrough with the first generation of systems launched in 1983, the year it was founded. At that time, the company combined a cutter/compactor with a (radial) extruder and thus made it possible to cut, compact and extrude plastic waste in a single, continuous process. The machines were straightforward to operate, had low space requirements and consumed on average 30% less energy compared with the competition at that time.

Erema continued to develop this technology and with the launch of the second plant in 1993 once again brought about an advancement, with the extruder being located tangentially to the cutter/compactor.

Additionally, a newly defined and optimised scaling of the cutter/ compactor, in relation to the screw diameter of the tangentially connected extruder, made feeding easier with large individual waste material and optimised material preparation for the extrusion process. Furthermore, it was possible to direct the preheated material to the extruder with a more homogeneous temperature distribution, thanks to the longer residence times in the large cutter/compactor.

This technology has now culminated in the development of the inverse-tangential configuration of the new Intarema, which comes from Inverse + Tangential + Erema and is based on the patented Counter Current technology.

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Recycling Equipment

Meanwhile, Erema says its Vacurema technology occupies a market share of 50%, with more than 150 systems in use around the world, producing end products such as films, with a capacity of 1 million tonnes/year. It says the secret lies in the patented pre-treatment of PET flakes at raised temperature and in high vacuum before the extrusion process, thus removing moisture and migration materials from the feedstock. Thanks to the vacuum treatment, stable IV values can be achieved even in the case of varying moisture levels and different IV values in the input material. As input materials with up to 1.5% moisture can be processed, no expensive pre-drying is necessary, unlike competitor equipment. Extruder degassing is not required either, allowing for a short extruder screw while the thermal stress on the material is reduced. Furthermore, the patented configuration allows for lower maintenance.

The firm also says an independent testing institute has confirmed that Vacurema technology has the best energy efficiency. A total of eight different PET recycling technologies were tested for electrical and thermal performance and the Vacurema inline sheet system (used to produce food contact grade thermoforming sheet) of a customer in Germany recorded the lowest energy consumption (including sheet downstream) of 0.29 kWh/kg.

Moby line for recycled PET Italian recycling machinery maker Gamma Meccanica will showcase the G-Moby line for recycled PET. The line, developed in cooperation with Italian auxiliary equipment maker SB Plastics Machinery, is touted to produce energy savings of up to 40%.

It is composed of the Compac with Ecotronic system (cutter-compactor), extruder, screen changer and the new TI underwater pelletiser. The extruder has high performance degassing. It uses one vent with high vacuum to remove any possible residual moisture that is not extracted by the cutter-compactor. The screen changer is a special design, specifically for working with PET material

An example of a G-Moby line with the GM50 Compac for an output of 150 kg/hour

The line produces pellets suitable for producing food packaging in accordance with FDA and EFSA standards. G-Moby works through two phases: recovering waste and transforming into pellets, and a second phase where the pellets are heat treated using solid state polycondensation technology.

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During the process, the material first undergoes pre-drying and agglomeration in the Compac shredder unit, ensuring complete evaporation of all moisture and the pre-melting of the material. The next step is the melting itself, the filtration and the PET granulation.

What is obtained at the end of the process is a PET granule with a very low IV (intrinsic viscosity), that sometimes is reduced to zero, says the Italian firm. At this point the granule that comes out through the cutter, and still retains most of the heat acquired during the two previous processes, is introduced in Moby. This device uses infrared treatment and vacuum: in a single step, it crystallises, dehumidifies and “super cleans” the material. In this way, it is possible to remove all the contaminants present in the PET, making it suitable for food use, says the firm.

G-Moby is available in a range of sizes with a production capacity of 80 kg/hour (with the smaller line GM50 Compac) to 2,200 kg/hour (with GM210 Compac).

Upcycling waste and size reduction equipment Austrian firm Starlinger will exhibit a solution for producing waste from PP tape lines, and how to turn recycled PET and HDPE into food-safe production material. With its recoBATCH application, Starlinger says it can even be upcycled with the addition of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) during the recycling process. Thus, the waste becomes in-house produced masterbatch, which can be used to substitute part of the masterbatch needed in tape production.

Starlinger’s recoStar loading station

It will also showcase latest additions to the Viscotec line, such as the deCON 20 decontamination dryer. The FDA and EFSA-compliant device is used for processing flakes and recycled pellets from PET and HDPE for use in food-grade packaging. Also, newly developed by Starlinger is the viscoSHEET PET sheet that produces thermoforming sheets for food packaging from up to 100% recycled PET.

Meanwhile, German firm Herbold has extended its range of reduction equipment with the HZR 1300 shredder, designed for pre-cutting of pipes and profiles up to a diameter of 1,250 mm, as well as all sizes of pipes including solid materials.

Compared with a one-step size reduction process utilising a large granulator, the HZR, combined with a Neue Herbold granulator, operates with comparable low energy. It is also designed with wear-resistant cutting tools and features an optimised material feed via a loading flap developed by Herbold. The working

Recycling Equipment vacuum system to process the PET. This is achieved by means of the patented processing section. Based on a conventional single-screw extruder, the MRS is a drum containing eight satellite single screws, driven by a ring gear and pinion transmission. The “barrels” cut into the drum, are approximately 30% open and provide optimum exposure of the melt.

Thus, the devolatilising performance is said to be 50 times greater than that of a conventional single-screw extruder, a vacuum of 25 to 40 mbar.

Herbold’s shredder HZR 1300 is designed for pre-size reduction of plastic pipes, profiles (any diameters up to solid materials) and start-up lumps

length of up to 7,000 mm and the hydraulicallyoperated loading flap grant a hazard-free operation.

Equipped with a load-dependent control, the HZR achieves an output of up to 3,000 kg/hour.

German firm Gneuss’s Multi Rotation System (MRS) extruder has established itself as one of the key technologies for processing PET reclaim. About 40 of these extruders have been sold for sheet, fibre and repelletising applications in Europe, Asia and the US. An advantage is that it permits the processing of PET without pre-drying, by using a simple water ring

Gneuss offers the MRS in capacities from 35 kg/hour to 2,000 kg/hour

INTAREMA® The new system generation from EREMA.

Efficiency at the fore.

High capacities have never been as easy to achieve as with the new INTAREMA®.

Counter Current technology makes it possible. Because the extruder handles more material in a shorter time. And this means for you: constant, top throughput within a considerably larger temperature range. For more productivity, flexibility and process stability.

CHOOSE THE NUMBER ONE.