TECHNOLOGY | FILM
Right: Erema’s new Intarema TVEplus DuaFil Compact is suited to recycling film waste
Pla.to says: “The process was tested, among other things, on real material mixtures such as the Green Dot’s 310 film fraction from the post-con- sumer sector. The PE [materials] recovered in this way were not only processed into reusable granules, but also successfully used to blow new films, completing the cycle from film-to-film.”
Pla.to presented its new and established technologies at the K2022 fair in October where many other machinery suppliers highlighted recycling of film and flexible packaging. Erema launched a double filtration machine Intarema TVEplus DuaFil Compact which combines the group’s TVEplus technology with a new compact design. The engineer- ing design features the use of a melt pump tailored to the application, so the necessary pressure build-up for the second filtration unit is particularly efficient and the temperature is therefore signifi- cantly reduced, says Erema. Sebastian Sochor, R&D Engineer at Erema, says:
“The lower melt temperature of the DuaFil Compact in this area has a positive effect on the melt quality and significantly reduces energy consumption.” This gentle treatment is beneficial to the produc-
Below: The Repro-Flex system from Polystar can have one or two extruders
tion of high-quality pellets from PCR packaging waste. Compared to the previous Erema double filtration solution, the Intarema TVEplus DuaFil Compact in size 1108 is said to achieve a mass temperature that is 18.5° C lower upstream of the second filter unit and a 10% lower overall energy consumption when processing LDPE supermarket film with paper content (measured as specific energy consumption in kWh/kg). Erema indicates the new machine is also adept
at dealing with LDPE/LLDPE material flows which often have different degrees of moisture and contamination from impurities such as paper labels, wood particles or other polymers, that lead
to malodours and discoloration. Repro-Flex is the Taiwan-based Polystar group’s system for recycling printed and non-printed PE, PP film, multi-layered film, shrink film, stretch film, PE and EPE foam. Repro-Flex incorporates a cutter-compactor unit which, it says, has an advantage for larger-sized recyclers: through the heat and friction generated from the rotation of film waste in the unit, it can quickly compact and densify the light-weight material into a more solid form to be fed into the extruder at a constant rate. Polystar says the Repro-Flex model is one of its most popular products among recyclers due to its high level of efficiency and stability in recycling both soft and hard plastic scraps in a variety of forms. It says there are 1,200 Repro-Flex recycling machines in operation worldwide. For recyclers who process washed and fully printed post-consumer waste, Polystar offers the option of adding a second extruder to the Repro- Flex model. Having a cutter compactor built in and operating with the same working principles means the two-stage Repro-Flex Plus model has a total of three degassing zones and two filtration steps in the recycling process. This model is also ideal for processing post-industrial laminated/multi-layered waste, says the company.
Italian compounding machinery maker ICMA
San Giorgio demonstrated a One-Step upcycling line for flexible packaging at K2022. In its latest patented version, the line features one co-rotating extruder which the company says can produce top quality recycled compounds at a high productivity level, with a very good energy saving performance. ICMA also showed new techniques and solutions for its established compounding/upcycling systems, like stripping, optimal design simulation and integration of devices, which it says maximises a high-quality outcome even from the most challenging waste.
32 PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD | January/February 2023
www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com
IMAGE: POLYSTAR
IMAGE: EREMA
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