Martin Scholler, president of Atlas Polytech Inc./Group Rhino, Boucherville, Quebec, Canada, says his tire recycling process can produce molded products without the need for as many size reduction and sorting steps necessary in many other markets.
The company offers two arrangements to entrepreneurs interested in adopting the manufacturing process: “We work in technology transfer for a small percentage of the sales, or in a partnership where we invest also our own funds in return for earnings,” says Scholler.
Among the benefits of the Atlas Polytech system, according to Scholler, is the speed of the process and the advantage of securing orders for molded products in advance to guarantee an end market for scrap tires or shreds taken into inventory.
The molding process requires no curing, and the products designed by Atlas Polytech can also use a blend of materials, including recycled rubber, plastics and blends of the two materials.
“Grinding up rubber and plastics into granulated products is costly and does not bring profits hoped for when compared to the investment in plant and equipment,” says Scholler. “Most companies are doing this and end up with little profits or no profit at all, and [often] end up in bankruptcy, especially when it comes to rubber recycling where the investment in plant and machinery is in the millions of dollars.”
Creating a manufactured product, such as industrial floor matting, can build in profits that cannot always be found with tire shreds or crumb rubber, according to Scholler.
“When the scrap rubber and plastics are converted into a quality new material or a new product is made from rubber and plastic scrap or blends or both, the profit picture changes,” he remarks. “Grinding up tires allows for a selling price of 10 cents per pound on the average. Selling a value-added new material made from the same scrap gives you 50 cents to one dollar per pound, or 5 to 10 times more than you get by producing and selling granulated scrap materials,” adds Scholler.
The Atlas Polytech process in particular is profitable, Scholler claims, because it eliminates curing cycles and makes molded products much faster by using thermoplastic elastomers on standard plastic injection molding machines or specially-designed compression molding presses that reduce output time “to just seconds.”
More information on the Atlas Polytech process, which Scholler says his company has been using since the 1950s, can be found on the Web at www.grouprhino.com.