Stricker PolyRec Co. has opened a large-scale plant for size-reducing, agglomerating and refining engineering plastics waste in Dortmund, Germany. The facility opened in October.
The facility will target plastics such as PET, PA and PC films, nonwovens, filaments, fibers and other plastics. The company says that the materials are able to be recycled at the facility economically with minimal thermal degradation. The end product is an agglomerate with excellent flow properties and a high bulk density, free from fines by sifting and screening. The granule size of the end product can vary according to the customer’s specification.
Equipment used by Stricker PolyRec for the plastcompactor concept was developed by Herbold Meckesheim Gmbh, also based in Germany. With the equipment, voluminous materials with poor flowing properties can be turned into a 100 percent reusable resource.
One example among many is the treatment of PET bottles transformed into clean but badly flowing flat flakes after washing, separation and drying. With the help of the plastcompacting procedure used by Stricker PolyRec, the flakes are turned into a material with excellent flow properties, appropriate for a trouble-free gravimetrical dosing for film production lines. In one production step, PET is at the same time completely crystallized.
The heart core of the new plant at Stricker PolyRec is the Herbold-Plastcompactor HV 70 with a 250 kW main drive as well as a fully automatic system control in order to guarantee an unchanging quality.
Herbold Meckesheim GmbH designed, developed and delivered this turn-key plant. Special emphasis was given to a universal application of the machine and a quick material change due to an easy access for cleaning.
"Herbold Meckesheim presented a convincing concept with a good price-performance ratio. In close cooperation with the manufacturer we succeeded in developing the optimal plant configuration, so we are well prepared for forthcoming recycling problems in accordance with market requirements,” said Egbert Schmidt, managing director of Stricker PolyRec.
Agglomeration is also a toll service Stricker PolyRec offers to companies wishing to reuse their plastic waste for their own production.