Bunting eddy current cleaning up plastic scrap

A plastics recycler in the United Kingdom has turned to magnetic equipment supplier Bunting to help it capture any residual metal from its stream of shredded polyethylene terephthalate (PET) shredded plastic flakes.

According to United States-based Bunting, which also has a fabrication plant in the U.K., its customer “shreds millions of plastic bottles every day to make PET flake.” The clean flake is sold to injection molding companies, Bunting adds.

Metal contamination can be present in the firm’s infeed material, with metal detectors rejecting more than 2,500 pounds of PET flake per day. “That’s anywhere from $200 to $500 per ton, per day, going to waste,” according to Bunting.

The plastics recycler, whose name Bunting has chosen not to disclose, has now added Bunting’s High Frequency Eddy Current Separator (HFEC) to remove shredded aluminum and other contaminants before they reach the metal detector. The HFEC uses its magnetic forces to repel nonferrous metals and increase separation from non-conductive materials. “This helps plastics recyclers achieve the cleanest plastic flake possible,” according to Bunting.

The HFEC from Bunting has what the firm calls a unique magnetic rotor design that provides an exceptionally strong gauss level. “This enhances the eddy current field intensity and results in greater separation of small metallic particles from plastics,” Bunting says.

HFEC units from the equipment maker are available in three widths: 1 meter (3.25 feet), 1.5 meters (4.9 feet), and 2 meters (6.5 feet). More information about them can be found here.