TECHNOLOGY | RECYCLING
weight, thickness, type of polymer and even temperature of the piece. The variability of the operating conditions of a
granulator used in such applications is very high and normally the granulator is sized according to the most demanding condition, Santella notes. “The consequence is that of using an oversized ma- chine, which produces very high operating costs and exaggerated maintenance costs. The AMP instead automatically adjusts the operating conditions of the granulator with its self-adaptive function.” The AMP allows the quality of the regrind to be optimised (dimensional homogeneity of the particles and absence of dust) and to reduce the use of energy to a minimum. “20 to 25Wh/kg is the amount of energy used by a CMG granulator, compared to the 40Wh/kg and beyond that a conventional unit consumes,” says Santella. The ROI time for the AMP is said to be very short. “The AMP guarantees an optimised TCO that is far lower than the conventional granulation solutions available today.” “Equally innovative are the advanced controls used to obtain a high level of process manage- ment, all rigorously equipped with the OPC-UA communication protocol,” says Santella. CMG is headquartered near Bologna, Italy.
Around a year ago, Piovan’s Universal Dynamics bought CMG America in Clio, Michigan, which had been a wholly owned subsidiary. Universal Dynam- ics (Una-Dyn) has been part of Piovan for around 12 years.
Hellweg Maschinenbau debuted granulators
Right: New MDSi Smart Control version of Hellweg’s MDS 150
machine-side granulator
at K2019 with a new smart control system. This allows the granulators to be networked with upstream and downstream components, according to Industry 4.0 principles. The system measures and stores power consumption, rotation speed and bearing temperatures, as well as the service life of various compo- nents. “Evaluation of the data enables conclusions to be drawn about the energy consumption used in granula- tion of various plastics down to defined particle sizes and about the related service lives, for example of bearings, blades, V-belts, etc,” says the company. “The efficiency of the granulation process can be assessed by comparison with stored reference values, enabling potential malfunction and damage to be predicted at an early stage and then avoided.”
26 INJECTION WORLD | March 2020
The granulators now also feature a “boost”
operation, which enables a short-term increase in grinding performance, in order to compensate for production-related fluctuations. In addition, specific rotation speed ranges have been defined for various plastics, so that, for example, granulation of materials with low melting temperatures can be performed in continuous operation without the need for water-cooling. Smart Control evaluates measured power consumption over longer periods of time. The operator can use a digital Ampere meter in real-time operation and access detailed statistics that have been created over long-term operation. Standardised soft starting of the motor and a new motor brake are said to save energy and improve operational safety. Power consumption can also be reduced with a new “eco” operating mode, which adapts rotation speed according to input quantity.
Hellweg says improved spare parts manage- ment is possible with the new granulators, since the smart control enables monitoring of the state of cutting blades and sieves. A visible alarm informs the operator of the necessity to replace a worn part, while a V-belt monitoring system automati- cally switches off the granulator in the event of a deviation from the nominal value. Also integrated within the smart control is an
automated enquiry system that issues requests for quotations for spare parts such as blades, sieves and V-belts directly from the manufacturers. Wittmann says its new G-Max 9 granulator is suitable for inline recycling of soft to medium-hard rejects and sprues consisting of TPU, PP or PE – to
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IMAGE: HELLWEG MASCHINENBAU
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