Size reduction | shredders


Producers of plastic waste shredders are facing greater customer demands and are responding with units that are more reliable, easier to maintain and combine functionality, writes David Eldridge


Demanding more from shredding technology


Technology companies in the size reduction arena are adapting to the increasing demands of plastics recyclers. As the operations of recyclers grow, so too do the volumes and types of plastics waste that need to be shredded. Reducing the size of bulky post-consumer and post-industrial waste, shredders operate at the start of the recycling process and must perform reliably to avoid line stoppages. One customer of shredder technology group Vecoplan


has a 40 tonnes/hour throughput of waste raw material, says Stefan Kaiser, who heads the company’s plastics business unit. “If the shredders stopped, you can imagine how much the waste would pile up,” he says. Shredder manufacturers continue to develop


standard shredders, which have a single shaft, and for more difficult waste streams, two or four shafts. Many are also making multi-technology machines, combin- ing, for example, a shredder and a grinder in one unit. New developments are all about adapting to the changing needs of recyclers. Kaiser says customers want better energy efficiency


from shredders. They also want more homogenous particle sizes to come from the machines, as this contributes to better processing. The demands of individual recyclers, dealing with differing waste streams, has led to more custom building of size


www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com


reduction equipment, he says. Vecoplan developed its V-ECO series of shredders for


recyclers handling a wide range of plastics waste of differing sizes, such as hollow body parts like bottles, drums, pipes and profiles, as well as film and fibres. One of the newest additions in the range is the V-ECO 1700, with an infeed opening of 1,670 x 2,030 mm. A V-ECO 1700 is being used by CTR Mediterraneo in Spain to shred polypropylene big bags from the glass and ceramics industry. Its production rate is 2.5 tonnes/hour of PP waste. Another new development is the VD 1100 combined


shredder and granulator for recycling and in-house reprocessing of large parts into small particles. Vecoplan jointly developed the VD 1100 with Dreher Granulators. The shredder, which is on the top of the unit, is driven by a 37 kW motor, while the granulator at the bottom uses a 15 kW motor. Louis Hartel, Sales Director at Dreher, says this


combination means the granulator requires lower power input than if it was a standalone unit. As well as energy efficiency, other advantages include a lower investment cost and a 70% space saving compared with separate units. Untha produces a wide range of shredder types for plastics: LRK single shaft shredders, the compact S25


June 2017 | PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD 37


Main image: Untha launched its new QR


shredders at K 2016


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