Equipment report

Bulgaria’s Poligroup employs plastic recycling plant with Herbold and Erema systems

Herbold Meckesheim GmbH of Germany and Erema of Austria have joined forces to design a plastic recycling and extrusion plant for Poligroup GmbH in Bulgaria. The plant, in operation since September 2013, produces recycled film from postconsumer, agricultural and commercial plastic scrap.

The system is fed with a mix of film including low-density-polyethylene (LDPE) agricultural film, linear-low-density-polyethylene (LLDPE) film from commercial sources and postconsumer film from sorting facilities. The process begins with a Herbold washing line comprising preliminary size reduction and pre-washing of the film, followed by hydro-cyclone separation designed to separate heavier plastics from lighter polyolefin plastics. Herbold says it is the only company in the field to use hydro-cyclone separation.

The company says the washing line transforms the film into recycled material that can be used for the production of bin liners, protective sheets and construction foils made from 100% recycled plastic.

According to Herbold, a key advantage of the plant is its ability to handle highly contaminated as well as extremely thin-walled film. The company says the plant provides washed, homogeneous, high-quality film flakes that are ideal for further treatment in an Erema extrusion system.

At Poligroup, the washed and recycled film flakes are treated with Erema’s TVEplus plastics extrusion system, featuring a laser filter and die-face granulating system that recycles the flakes into granulates.

The Erema plant also features a multifunctional cutter compactor with patented air-flush module that offers cutting, homogenizing, heating, degassing, densifying, buffering and dosing in a single process, the manufacturer says.

“The system also stands out through its easy handling and long service life of the wear parts, such as filter screen and pelletiser knives,” Nikolay Tomov, production manager with Poligroup GmbH, says of the Erema system.

British recycler uses Sennebogen 818 Elektro for drywall recycling

British recycling company MidUK Recycling Ltd. has acquired a Sennebogen 818 R Elektro electrically operated material handler, which it uses in processing drywall and plaster board for recycling.

Delivered in late 2013, the Sennebogen 818 crawler is being used in the dusty application of processing gypsum board from industrial and construction waste and separating the gypsum from cardboard and other construction waste, Sennebogen reports. The remaining powdered gypsum can be used to produce cement and other products.

The machine works approximately 20 hours per day and is equipped with a 600 multishell grab to feed a shredder and a downstream processing line for gypsum board supplied to the family-owned company from throughout Great Britain by construction companies and small recycling businesses.

Equipped with a 75-kilowatt electric motor and 11-metre equipment, the machine was set up specifically for use within the hall. The electrohydraulic drive system offers maximum performance with low energy consumption, Sennebogen says. There are no exhaust fumes, and the machine does not require an external air supply for the engine inlet, as was the case with earlier versions of the diesel-operated crane, the manufacturer reports. The low noise emissions, longer service intervals and no requirement for refueling between shifts are additional advantages.

“Electric drives are the future in our industry,” says site manager Ian Sanderson. “The Sennebogen 818 Elektro is the perfect material handling machine for the tough conditions of recycling gypsum board. Giving incredibly low running costs and being extremely reliable is also very important.”

According to Sennebogen, the handler also features a number of equipment options. Sanderson says that both the compact dimensions and the cooling system with reversible fan makes the Sennebogen material handler the right tool for the job. This special fan design in which the rotor blades change their angle to reverse the flow of air instead of reversing the fan itself allows dust to be effectively ejected and increases the life of the components, Sennebogen says. The high-power LED headlight system and MultiCab cabin, which can be elevated to 2.7 metres, is also designed to give the driver an excellent overview of the work area.

Sennebogen worked with its British service and sales partner E.H. Hassell & Sons Ltd., based in Stoke-on-Trent, to develop the system geared for recycling under extreme conditions, Sanderson says.

Vecoplan opens technology center in Germany

The German equipment company Vecoplan AG has opened a technology and development center at its headquarters in Bad Marienberg, Germany. The company says it constructed the Vecoplan AG Technologiezentrum to give its customers one central location where they could see the full complement of equipment the company has to offer.

The company says the 17,000-square-foot (1,530-square-metre) facility is equipped with more than 25 machines representing a comprehensive range of mechanical technologies for the processing, recycling or repurposing of waste and biomass. The company celebrated the grand opening 5 Aug., with some 350 industrial, political and media leaders from the international environmental industry in attendance.

Vecoplan says its centrally located technology center is equipped to cover the company’s entire chain of processes in-house, accelerating development time and allowing for efficient test times. At the facility, processors can conduct tests on their specific materials across customized systems incorporating the necessary technologies, the company says.

Machines operating in the new center include various types of size reduction plants; conveying and diverting lines; screening and vibratory equipment; magnetic separators; nonferrous separation plants; air separation systems; optical sorters; plastics washing equipment; dust collection and a super-sack filling station.

“Vecoplan continues to make significant advances in process engineering, material classification, sorting innovations and washing technologies to once again raise the bar in our industry,” says Werner Berens, CEO of Vecoplan AG.

As part of the grand opening, the company highlighted its Vecoplan HydroDyn washing method, which allows for the processing of heavily soiled plastics. The washing method offers the high-grade cleaning of plastics, such as film with labels, agricultural film and stretch film, as well as hard plastics from various materials, Vecoplan says.

During the grand opening event, Eveline Lemke, Germany’s Minister of Economic Affairs for the State of Rhineland-Palatinate, said, “With its new Technologiezentrum, the company proves that it is one of the most innovative companies in this industry. Based on the tests in the Technologiezentrum, Vecoplan develops individual machinery for their clients. Consequently, every company receives a customized plant in accordance with its requirements.”

Also at the grand opening ceremony, Stefan Kaiser, head of Vecoplan’s recycling business unit, said, “The goal-oriented and reliable customization of today’s machinery and equipment is essential. The basis for design are always tests with the corresponding material, as this is the only way to develop a processing strategy.”

Kaiser said on this basis, the company plans installations all over the world. “The appropriate equipment of our new technology center allows us to efficiently and reliably handle complex tasks and even material that is difficult to process,” he added.

Mexico’s PetStar facility holds grand opening

Italian equipment maker AMUT has supplied a second PET (polyethylene terephthalate) wash plant to PetStar based in Toluca, Mexico.

PetStar’s expanded Toluca plant, reportedly the largest food-contact-grade PET recycling plant in the world and the largest PET recycling plant in Latin America, held a grand opening in July 2014 that was attended by Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto.

According to a press release from AMUT, the second wash plant helped allow the company to double its existing recycling capacity.

PetStar, co-owned by Coca-Cola bottlers of Mexico and other investors, now represents the largest bottle-to-bottle recycling plant in Latin America with a capacity of more than 6,000 kilograms per hour, AMUT says. The facility is built to handle some 1.5 billion bottles per year.

The AMUT PET bottle recycling system is designed to convert postconsumer PET bottles into flakes that are suitable to be processed by a solid-state polycondensation (SSP) system. The flakes have a top purity quality and are suitable for bottle-to-bottle applications, AMUT says.

Furthermore, AMUT says the plant has driven a change in Mexico’s waste management sector with the conversion of more postconsumer bottles into a usable raw material and helping to reduce the disposal of PET bottles in Mexico, while also helping to reduce the consumption of virgin resources.

The system includes bottle pre-washing, detection, grinding, washing, drying and final detection in one integrated system running a continuous process, the company says. The system is designed to remove impurities and also to save water and chemicals.

The patented AMUT Friction Washer removes polluting material from the PET flakes, the company says.

The AMUT Group, headquartered in Novara, Italy, also has locations in North America and Brazil.