MACHINERY | PELLETISING SYSTEMS
Above: BPM’s cutting chamber
includes a num- ber of quick changeover features
designs where required for specific customer applications.
Covid caution US-based Bay Plastics Machinery (BPM) says the pelletiser market overall has remained stable through the current Covid situation but reports some evidence of caution. “The market seems to be expecting a crash and no-one wants to get caught over-exposed. As a result, we have seen less of a need for new systems compared to the past few years, but a huge increase in the need for spare parts,” says James Forgash, Vice-President Sales at the company. That is not to say that demand for innovation has
disappeared. “We have been working with many manufacturing companies to streamline their existing process with the goal of going lights-out, operator free,” he says. “This includes automation of repetitive tasks, to where a single operator can be responsible for multiple pelletising lines without being overwhelmed. Customers are looking to improve uptime, reliability, and ease of mainte- nance in their pelletising lines.” Forgash says plastic dust continues to be an issue in cutting plastics, whether that is generated at the time of cutting or during conveying. A further problem is wear on equipment caused by abrasive formulations. “We are always looking at new coating or hardening processes to improve longevity of machinery,” he says. “Improved blade life for heavily-filled materials is moving us into new wear resistant materials, such as PCD (diamond) materials. This is showing a significant improve- ment in blade life.” BPM also reports a sharp increase in the use of its speciality pelletisers. For pelletising pharmaceu- tical and food grade materials, the company is
44 COMPOUNDING WORLD | January 2021
designing new machines and modifying existing pelletisers to improve performance. Examples include its new BT25 Pharma pelletiser and the AXM micro pelletiser with pellet EVAC, which can consistently produce pellets as small as 0.1mm by 0.1 mm with a 95% yield of good pellets. The company says it has also accelerated devel- opment of its pellet evacuation system, which was originally designed to transfer cut pellets from cutting chamber to a remote classifier or gaylord. “The system initially reduced the amount of dust generated from the cut by an air filtration system. Working with key developmental customers we have modified the system to help remove any remaining dust with our new de-dusting option, where cross- flow air is introduced into a pellet separating cyclone, capturing any remaining particles. Initial tests show the new option is very effective,” says Forgash. “Dust occurs in the pelletiser cutting chamber during the cut. Pellets can sometimes be double cut, which generates a pellet that is now a fraction of the intended size and out of spec. Evacuating the pellet immediately reduces the chance that it could bounce around the cutting chamber with the potential of being cut twice,” he says. Dust and fines created during conveying are also
removed through the secondary de-dusting cyclone, which uses a proprietary ratio of counter-flow air in selected areas to remove a controllable amount of unwanted material sizes from the end-product as it is spread thinly in the de-dust phase.
Energy savings Austria-based ECON has further developed its underwater pelletising technology with the exten- sion of its thermally insulated die plates to colour masterbatch production. The company claims its insulated die plate technology is well suited to difficult-to pelletise compounds, including highly- filled and soft formulations. It is said to minimise die freezing and avoid the risk of overheating of the compound while reduced heat transfer to the process water helps reduce energy consumption. Other ECON system features include its Water
Treatment & Drying System, which facilitates easy and quick access to all components, prevents build-up of sedimentation, and allows fast ex- change of rotor and screen. It is claimed to speed material changeovers and enable clean down of all important components in less than 20 minutes. Addressing automation demands, the ECONia system is fully automated and designed for Industry 4.0 production environments. Manual start-up of the process and manual knife changing is no longer required. The operator can efficiently operate and
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IMAGE: BAY PLASTICS MACHINERY
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