TECHNOLOGY | SORTING
from €52m in 2021). An investment of €30m covers the cost of the Innovation Centre and two further projects that will increase overall space by 4,000 m².
Above: A
display model of Sesotec’s new Variosort+ Flex unit
Right: Pellenc ST’s Mistral+ optical sorting line
supplier Sesotec. Its new Variosort+ Flex unit can be configured with three sensor types and a choice of different lighting systems to detect different plastic types, colours and shapes, light packaging as well as metals and foreign objects with a reject reliability of up to 99% at throughput rates up to 8 tonnes/hr. The unit can be operated with a third- party or the user’s own conveyor belt, which allows for maximum flexibility, says the company. The Variosort+ Flex unit incorporates up to three sensor types to detect colour, NIR and metals. Sesotec says the combination of AI with the sensor and camera technology allows the unit to sort materials that were previously indistinguishable. A high-resolution colour line scan camera and colour sensor offers 17 million teachable colours. It is combined with an innovative lighting that uses what the company calls incident light for a detec- tion of reflection. The camera and sensor can also sort by colour and shape, or to separate unwanted materials such as silicone. A hyperspectral camera with a NIR sensor can identify different polymer types and materials, including PET trays and bottle/label combinations, different material types such as LDPE and HDPE, and mono and multilayer materials. Users can configure the unit with one or a combination of the sensors. Users can add the Visudesk visualisation software which allows for remote control of the sorting line and data collection, which is displayed on all Sesotec equipment. Users have a device division option which allows for parallel sorting of two different material streams or for two-stage sorting. French optical sorter company Pellenc ST is
growing and making new investments. In June, it opened a new Innovation Centre in Pertuis, Vaucluse, with 1,350 m² space dedicated to R&D, including designing, prototyping and validating new technologies using the real-life conditions of a sorting centre. The company is aiming to double its workforce and reach €97m in turnover by 2025 (up
20 PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD | September 2022
www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com
Pellenc says sorting capacity, sorting quality and equipment scalability are the main challenges facing waste and recycling plant operators. The company has developed or enhanced several options for its Mistral+ family of products. A new Top Speed option addresses the needs by LDPE recyclers for high yields by increasing sorting capacity by 50% while maintaining sorting performance. The option also offers higher flexibility to tackle input stream quality variations. A Flow Detection system developed last year to
address higher purity sorting has broader detec- tion capability. The system combines a new spectrometer covering an extended NIR/VIS spectrum as well as focused lighting which enables the recovery of waste with higher material discrimi- nation. “In particular, this detection improves the handling of labels and sleeves and accurately separates monolayer PET trays from PET bottles,” says the company. A Profile Detection option introduced in 2020
further improves the purity of target fractions by removing objects invisible to NIR such as carbon black contaminants, inert objects or glass. The 2D sensor dedicated to the detection of these materi- als can also be used to concentrate rather than reject fractions such as black plastics, black paper. It can be retrofitted into a Mistal+ unit without changing the headroom or the light source, and it does not require the addition of laser technology or additional cowling. Pellenc ST’s Central Nervous System software
platform allows the Mistral+ optical sorter line to incorporate technologies such as Industrial Internet of Things, AI, or watermarking, for modularity and scalability, says Eric Westerhoff, Marketing Director.
IMAGE: SESOTEC
IMAGE: PELLENC
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