TECHNOLOGY | MONITORING
Post-consumer hygroscopic plastics must be dehumidified to produce new products says Piovan, however, the process to extract the moisture also extracts substances absorbed by the polymer. The air circulating in the circuits of the dehumidifier can be at risk of becoming saturated with organic compounds, which can lead to Non Intentionally Added Substances (NIAS) from the treated plastic, saturation of molecular sieves with consequent loss of functionality or oil deposition on the internal surfaces of the dehumidifier. Piovan developed Vulkano, a portable Total Organic Carbon (TOC) analyser for detecting and quantifying the presence of organic carbon com- pounds in the dehumidification process air. It offers a fast and accurate method for verifying the purity of the process air. It allows monitoring of the saturation of the filters to indicate the relative time for replacement. Users can measure ambient temperature in a range from 5-35C. The unit requires connections to compressed air, and a hydrogen and air oxidation reactor. Vulkano features an intuitive interface and operates on a 10.4-inch TFT colour and touchscreen display. At K2022, Piovan showed other new technology connected with plastics recycling. Visitors were able to to view Odor Minder, which is a compact in-line electronic nose designed to verify the effectiveness of the post-consumer plastic deodori- sation process. In addition, Piovan offered to test visitors’ finished products (sheets and bottles) or semi-finished products (granules and preforms) in PET and rPET for benzene or acetaldehyde using its Inspecta analyser. Erema has launched a predictive maintenance
package called PredictOn for plastics recycling machinery. The first element in the offer, PredictOn:Drive, was highlighted by the company at K2022. Erema says: “Real-time visualisation of process and machine data holds great potential for the circular economy as a whole and for recycling processes in particular.” PredictOn:Drive has been developed for the company’s PET recycling machines and can be used to monitor the condition of the main drive trains and vacuum pumps using sensor-based data during operation to predict when maintenance needs to be performed next. Visualisation is through an app in the BluPort digital customer platform. “The big benefit of recognising maintenance
requirements and anomalies on critical compo- nents in good time is that machine operators can respond before a problem occurs,” says Florian
46 PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD | November/December 2022
Erema’s PredictOn:Drive enables predictive maintenance of all main drive trains and, for PET recycling plants, and also the vacuum pump stations
Schieder, who is responsible for Erema’s development and innovation planning. “Deploying service personnel and obtaining spare parts can be better planned using predictive maintenance and leads to higher plant availability and lower costs compared to routine or scheduled preventive maintenance. That is because we only intervene when a problem has been identified.” PredictOn:Drive is supported by a modular
measurement and sensor system for real-time data acquisition and storage that is used for machine condition evaluation. The data is also used for advanced analysis of damage location and damage spread and the system then proposes possible countermeasures. The necessary measuring systems for drive train monitoring are currently fitted on all large-scale Intarema, Vacurema and Vacunite technology featuring extruder diameters larger than 160 mm. The company says existing plants can also be retrofitted with these systems. It is planning to extend the monitoring systems for use in smaller plants and in the machines supplied by sister company Pure Loop. The BluPort platform can be accessed via PC and mobile devices and offers a suite of service and data visualisation apps that help plant operators control quality and improve machine performance. The app offering is constantly being expanded,
says Erema. The basic package is free of charge. Customers who purchase the Smart Service Package get the full version including extra content.
Additional reporting by David Eldridge.
CLICK ON THE LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION: �
www.piovan.com �
www.steinertglobal.com �
www.erema.com
www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com
IMAGE: EREMA
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