GRANULATORS | SIZE REDUCTION


which operates discontinuously. The roller feed has a pneumatic pressure control that enables it to adapt to the thickness of the incoming material. Rapid said the ThermoPRO uses a heavy-


PRO, a granulator series designed specifically for in-line processing of skeletal waste from sheet and film thermoforming lines. “Thermoforming companies live or die accord- ing to how well they handle and recycle their trim,”said Bengt Rimark, Rapid’s CEO. “Skeletal waste can easily account for up to 30-40% of their total throughput, so it is critical that the trimmed material is returned to the process as cost-effective- ly as possible and with the highest quality possible. When everything works the way it should, the savings that the converter can make are enormous.” The ThermoPRO Series is available in various


standard and low-built formats for handling scrap widths from 600 to 1,500 mm (24-60 inches). The machines have features common to other Rapid granulators, including double-scissor cutting action, an “open hearted” design for fast production changeovers and ease of maintenance, a mineral composite base for high stability and low noise. More specific to thermoforming operations, the


ThermoPRO Series has been designed to operate around the clock. Rapid says modular construction was critical to the overall concept of the Thermo- PRO, in order to make it possible to create configu- rations compatible with all the brands of thermo- forming equipment operating in the sector. “Some [thermoforming] machines push out the skeletal waste upwards, some downwards, some even sideways,” said Rimark. “We needed to be able to adapt the overall design to fit into any of these scenarios.”


Other benefits for thermoforming operations include a compact design of the integrated roll feed and dancer bar. Together, these enable the skeleton to be pulled into the machine, which is running constantly, in sync with the production line,


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duty roller feed as standard, which makes it possible to run several webs into the granulator at the same time. It also facilitates granulation at the start-up of a thermoforming line, when the parts are not stamped out of the sheet, meaning that the entire web, trim and parts together, needs to be fed into the granula- tor. Customers can also order a modular sound enclosure which limits the sound level to below 80 dBA in most applications. Piovan, the Italian auxiliary equipment group, announced in July that its US business, Universal Dynamics, had moved into a new manufacturing facility in Fredericksburg, Virginia, doubling its previous production capacity. Also acting as the new headquarters of the Piovan Group in North America, the facility’s output covers a wide range of Piovan’s products, including storage, conveying, blending, drying and size reduction equipment. In 2019, the new facility will also become the manufacturing centre for Piovan Group’s Aquatech process water-cooling equipment, which has been imported for about three years from Aquatech’s Italian facility. Like other manufacturers, Piovan highlights the tangential design of the cutting system, which it first launched in its granulators in 2015. However, it said: “The new Piovan granulators are a step ahead of current versions available in the market thanks to the way they are manufactured. The cutting chamber is made from machined pieces, which are then assembled rather than being cast or welded.” Piovan also highlights the energy efficient electrical and control systems of its granulators. In processes with fluctuating scrap generation, the granulator’s energy saving system intervenes to manage the idle periods and optimise consump- tion. Its granulators can achieve energy savings between 15% and 35% depending on the applica- tion, said Piovan.


CLICK ON THE LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION: � www.wittmann-group.com � www.neue-herbold.com � www.triaplastics.com � www.hellweg-granulators.com � www.acscorporate.com/cumberland � www.conairgroup.com � www.rapidgranulator.com � www.piovan.com


November/December 2018 | PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD 33


Rapid has developed ThermoPRO granulators for in-line process- ing of skeletal waste from sheet and film thermoforming lines


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