process feature | Recycling and granulators Bound for Brazil


Gneuss Kunststofftechnik has sold four of its MRS lines to two Brazilian companies. One line was bought by Nova Pack Embalagens, which specialises in the production of thermoforming sheet made of PET, PP and PS. For PET sheet production, it has used in-house or bought-in recycled material for several years. Now, the company – which has


operated Gneuss rotary filtration systems


for around five years – has decided to buy an extrusion line with the MRS Extruder. “For the first time, we are in a position


to produce packaging from 100% recycled material,” said Ivanor Luis Arioli, managing director of Nova Pack. “We have mainly been convinced by the low cost and the high transparency of the produced film. None of these factors could be realised with traditional systems.”


in four different sizes to meet various rate and conveying distance requirements.


At the same time, Conair has developed two variants


of its Trueblend blenders, to help processors handle bottle flake and other difficult-to-feed regrind more efficiently. “Certain thin, flaky regrind – like PET bottle scrap or


A lift auger in Conair’s Trueblend products eliminates bridging and promotes free flow of material


thicker film and sheet scrap – has granules with relatively large, flat surfaces so they tend to pack together and bridge in conventional hoppers,” said Jeff Bickel, blender product engineer. “In the past, proces- sors often found it necessary to re-pelletise these materials so that they could be handled more efficiently – and that made them less economic to use.” The two blenders take very different approaches to handling these difficult regrind materials. For small quantities, Conair Trueblend blenders can be fitted with side feeders with steeply angled sides that help prevent the regrind from hanging up and bridging. The material then flows easily through an oversized opening at the bottom to a horizontal auger that positively conveys granules into the mixing chamber. For blending high volumes of regrind, the blenders


The other three lines were bought by


PET fibre recycling company Unnafibras Textil.


Gneuss MRS extrusion systems


comprise the Multi Rotation System extruder for dehumidification of the recycled material without cost-intensive pre-treatment, a Rotary Filtration System for safe removal of contaminated particles and an online viscometer for automatic control of melt viscosity.


use ‘lift augers’ to eliminate bridging and promote free flow of material. The lift augers are positioned at an angle in a corner of the regrind bin, Instead of forcing material out of the bin – as most conventional augers do – they turn in the opposite direction, moving granules up and away from the bottom of the bin. This keeps the material loose so that it can flow more easily through oversized side gates and into the mixing chamber.


Closed loop project The pan-European Clipp project aims to promote the ‘valuable recycling resource’ concept for industrial painted and laminated packages – including injected parts and extruded films. The system proposed in the project looks to remove


and compatibilise contaminants so that the material’s original properties can be retained – and can be transformed back into its original applications – whether a film or package. This closed-loop manage- ment system would allow companies that generate the wastes to re-use the recycled material for the same applications. In order to develop the recycling technology, the project will consider the use of a series of extruders – in


tandem with a system of CO2 injection – combined with advanced systems of micro-particle filtering. Previous experience from project partner Aimplas in this kind of extrusion technology has allowed it to assess the


viscosity reduction generated by the CO2 in the molten polymer, which favours the removal of impurities and low molecular weight materials. Click on the links for more information: ❙ www.ecostarplastics.com ❙ www.erema.at ❙ www.coperion.com ❙ www.conairgroup.com ❙ www.gneuss.com ❙ www.clipp-project.eu


14 FILM & SHEET EXTRUSION | December 2012/January 2013 www.filmandsheet.com


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