PROCESSING | THIN-WALL PACKAGING
PP recycling Tamsin Ettefagh, chief sustainability officer at US-based Purecycle Technology, said the com- pany uses a solvent-based process to recycle used polypropylene (PP). She pointed out that more than 180 billion lbs (81 million tonnes) of PP was produced in 2021 – of which less than 5% got recycled. The company takes scrap PP and recycles it into
Above and right: Officials from the port of Antwerp- Bruges recently visited Purecycle’s facility in Ironton
Outsourcing needs Scott Carter, vice president of R&D at Tek Pak, said that outsourcing of thin-wall packaging is a key considera- tion for producers. His company produces thermoformed packaging – and electronics packaging and tooling – at facilities in Illinois. It began as a supplier of custom carrier tape for the mobile phone market, and its services now include thermoforming in a Class 8 cleanroom. Its thermoformed trays are used in a variety of industries including food, medical and electronics. As well as commonplace materials, it also uses advanced polymers such as Peek, PEI, PBT and polycarbonate.
In thermoforming, it produces custom-designed aluminium moulds – with prototype tooling often being used in production tooling. Tools are built for both in-house and external use. “In some cases, we run production for custom- ers until they are ready to bring production in house,” he said. The company runs prototyping, mid-volume and high-volume machinery. Prototyping machinery might typically run at 60 parts per hour, mid-vol- ume at 250 per hour and high-volume at more than 1200 per hour. The high-volume machinery is typically KMD models from Kiefel. “We responded to customer demand and bridged the gap between prototype and full production quantities,” he said. “Small footprint equipment – such as the KMD 60 – is key to running low- to mid-volumes in the ‘gap’.” Full tooling capabilities is critical for develop- ment – and the path to high-volume production, he added.
16 FILM & SHEET EXTRUSION | November 2023
‘clean’ resin – by removing odour, colour and contaminants. The seven-step process involves melting and filtering, extraction, mixing and settling, filtering, purification, separation and finally extruding and pelletisation. The process itself is licensed from Procter & Gamble. This is not chemical recy-
cling, she said – as the resin is not broken down into its component monomers. Instead, it is purified using solvents, she said. “We don’t alter the PP
properties – they remain the same as the PP is purified,” she said. “This allows it to be recycled multiple times.” The company recently opened its first facility
in Ironton, Ohio. It has a capacity of 107 million lbs/ year (48,000 tonnes/year). The new plant will employ up to 100 people. The company is eyeing other plant start-ups – in
Augusta, Georgia, as well as Belgium, South Korea and Japan. Purecycle will produce grades of ‘ultra pure’
resin – which will typically be blended with virgin resin. In one example – its HPP15S with virgin PP – it has tested five grades, ranging from 100% virgin resin to 100% recycled resin. The grades have been tested for physical characteristics such as tensile strength, flexural modulus and melt flow rate.
“Based on the results, the maximum suggested blending ratio of HPP15S – with a measured melt flow rate of around 15 – with virgin PP is about 25%,” she said. “We will continue our experiments to evaluate the effect of various MFRs of HPP15S and different virgin PP grades on blend properties – to develop maximum blending ratios for HPP15S across the entire range of its expected MFR.”
Nucleating agent John Mara, technical director of Amfine, told delegates that polypropylene can be imbued with superior properties – such as through the use of its new beta-nucleating agent.
www.filmandsheet.com
IMAGE: PURECYCLE
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