MELT FILTRATION | PROCESSING
Melt filter and screenchanger producers are upgrading designs to handle the higher levels of contaminants in recycled
plastics.Peter Mapleston reports on the latest developments
Innovations in melt filtration
Suppliers of melt filtration equipment are making steady progress in the development of innovative and more effective solutions for cleaning up industrial and post-consumer plastic melt streams containing levels of contamination all the way to very high. And several of the very latest develop- ments first saw the light of day at this year’s two recent international trade shows – NPE in the US in May and Plast in Italy in May/June). At Plast, for example, FIMIC displayed its ERAmelt filtration system. This filters material twice using meshes of two different sizes enabling it to handle highly contaminated, typically post-con- sumer, waste plastic. In a typical installation, the first mesh might be 400 micron and the second one 150 micron. Sales Director Erica Canaia explains that with laser-perforated filters being so expensive, the holes in the first filter are typically punched out and only the second filter is laser- perforated. The system is said to provide an interesting and cost-effective alternative to the use of two extruders, each equipped with its own single filter. The Italian company has just installed two of these systems at a customer in Canada. FIMIC is also placing a lot of emphasis on PVC
recycling, especially from cable scrap, and in this sector has been cooperating with researchers from Zlin University in the Czech Republic. Together with a customer, the team has tested a modified version of FIMIC’s RAS melt filter, using two different filtration levels of 600 micron and later 300 micron; future tests will use finer filters, down to 200 micron. FIMIC Technician Marco Napoleone says the results to date have been “excellent.” The
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filtered material has been used for successfully to injection mould floor tiles. Cofit had its new Gorillabelt T automatic and continuous screen changer on display at the Italian show. This is also intended for heavy recycling duties and offers filtration levels to 50 micron and features what the company describes as a zero polymer loss cleaning cycle. Cofit says the T version can handle a wide variety of waste plastics – it highlights building and agricultural film waste in particular, as well as post-consumer materials – containing any type of scrap (metal, wood, paper, textile fibre, sand, and more). The Gorillabelt T can operate at temperatures up to 300 °C and pressures of up to 300 bar, with output rates up to 3,000 kg/h. Filter area is up to 816 cm2
and screens are supplied on 50m rolls,
each sufficient for up to 250 changes. Cofit says the new unit “is the first step towards an Industry
Left: A PVC filtration test using an RAS melt filter in the FIMIC plant in Italy
Main image: Screenchanger manufacturers are working hard to improve performance of their
equipment. This PSI design is optimised for the challenge of rigid PVC processing
July 2018 | COMPOUNDING WORLD 41
PHOTO: POLYMER SYSTEMS INC
PHOTO: FIMIC
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