Product Innovations - Recycling Today

Rotary batch mini mixers: Munson Machinery’s rotary batch mini mixers are available in six models with maximum batch capacities from 0.25 cubic feet to 15 cubic feet. Each is equipped with a large access door and swing-away intake chute. The proprietary mixing flights welded to the rotating drum gently tumble, turn, cut and fold the material to produce homogenous blends with no shear. The mixers are suitable for laboratory testing, pilot production and documenting of outcomes when scaling up to larger rotary batch mixers.

What’s new? Abrasion-resistant versions. For example, Munson announced its MX-10-AR mixer, with a 10-cubic-foot capacity, is available with abrasion-resistant steel on its wear surfaces and welded internals, including the mixing flights.

Benefits: Fast, efficient blending of abrasive materials. The blenders can blend aggregates, metal powders, pigments, reinforced thermoplastics and other abrasive materials, with or without liquid additions, in ratios down to 1 part per million with total uniformity in two to three minutes.

Munson Machinery Co. Inc., Utica, New York, 315-797-0090, www.munsonmachinery.com

LNP ELCRIN copolymer resins: SABIC has introduced a range of new polycarbonate copolymer materials made with as much as 75 percent certified postconsumer recycled (PCR) content. They can be used in a variety of parts, including housings for consumer electronic devices and chargers, enclosures for 5G base-station infrastructure and industrial components, such as circuit breakers. Automotive parts makers also can use them in exterior grilles, pillars and trim.

What’s new? A portfolio of 10 materials representing an upgrade over SABIC’s portfolio of existing PCR materials. According to the company, they contain more PCR content and come in a wider range of colors.

Benefits: The ability for plastic parts makers to reduce their carbon footprint with materials that deliver the necessary performance and appearance characteristics. According to SABIC, compared with other impact-modified PC resins containing PCR content, the new resins perform better. Depending on the grade, they can provide low-temperature ductility, chemical and weathering resistance, good flow for easy processing, thin-wall flame retardance and ultraviolet light stability; some also are transparent.

SABIC, Houston, 713-430-2301, www.sabic.com/en

600 W series grinders: Hellweg Maschinenbau’s 600 W series of digitally controlled grinders can turn a wide variety of plastic films into uniformly cut flakes for recycling, the company says. The films, made of materials that can include polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene tereph-thalate (PET), polystyrene (PS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polycarbonate (PC), polylactic acid, high-density poly-ethylene (HDPE) or low-density polyethylene (LDPE), are force-fed using tamping screws. The grinders use low-power motors rated from 45 kilowatts (kW) to 110 kW and, depending on the version, have five or seven rotary blades, plus two or three static blades. They come with Hellweg’s digital Smart Control system and work with an internal logic processor to respond to fluctuating operating conditions.

What’s new? The 600 W series grinders. Hellweg displayed the MDSG 1500/600 W model at the Fakuma trade show last October in Germany and plans to release versions called MDSG 600/600 W and MDSG 600/300 W. The first number denotes the working width in millimeters, and the second denotes the diameter of the rotors.

Benefits: Low power consumption and operating costs. The grinders’ motors operate at 70 kWh to 90 kWh while reaching throughputs of up to 11,023 pounds of film per hour. The grinders have a durable, heavy-duty design, and their blades are wear-resistant and require no adjustment of the cutting gap.

Hellweg Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. KG, Roetgen, Germany, 49-0-2471-4254, www.hellweg-granulators.com

Innosort Flake: This sorting system Sorting uses a near-infrared (NIR) spectrometer and dual-color camera technology to sort plastic flakes for recycling and recently was upgraded to improve its ability to sort material streams, enabling simultaneous detection of polymers, colors and foreign materials. It has a changeable illumination background and detects millions of colors, according to the manufacturer.

What’s new? Redesigned mechanical and optical architecture designed to boost the precision with which Innosort Flake detects and ejects unwanted flakes or foreign materials, providing higher-purity sorted fractions in fewer steps.

Benefits: More plastics can be separated and recycled that would otherwise be lost or downcycled. Mechanical design changes have reduced machine vibration, improving optical accuracy and reducing maintenance requirements. A new interface provides high flexibility and on-the-fly configuration for multiple plastics applications, and it provides detailed on-screen statistics for accurate real-time process overview. Its high-contrast imaging can differentiate between white, opaque and natural, transparent and translucent flakes, while the use of up to four chutes allows for multiple sorting and recovery steps in a single machine.

Tomra Recycling Sorting, Charlotte, North Carolina, 980-279-5650, www.tomra.com/en/sorting/recycling

RAS: First introduced about 20 years ago, this Fimic line of automatic, self-cleaning melt filters is designed to handle any type of contamination. Each has a nonaugur valve. As part of the process, two blades scrape the contamination collected by the filter. A scraper traps the contamination, then automatically discharges it via a front valve. Various modes adjust for the volume of material being processed. According to Fimic, about 530 filters are in operation worldwide.

What’s new? A bigger model, the 800 millimeter—about 31.5-inch—RAS 800, available for delivery in May. It has 766 square inches of filtration surface, which is 30 percent more filtering surface than the next biggest size, the RAS 700. Filter screens can be created by punch or laser. The RAS 800 also has a new radial discharge valve, and the body is heavier. Two support arms have been added to raise and lower the lid.

Benefits: A 40 percent increase in production, thanks to the RAS 800’s larger filtering surface. It is designed to operate without human intervention, according to Fimic. The RAS 800 can be used on a wide range of materials, including PP, LDPE, HDPE, PS, PET, PVC, expanded polystyrene and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene. Overall, using the Fimic self-cleaning melt filters results in reduced quantity of waste and low maintenance costs.

Fimic srl, Carmignano di Brenta, Italy, 864-415-1639, www.fimic.it

Gaudenzi melt filter media: Microperforated extruder filter screens from Italian manufacturer Gaudenzi are available in the North American market through Innovative Recycling Solutions. The Gaudenzi filter media features burr-free holes as small as 70 microns and up to 2,000 microns. The metal filter screens are hardened. Gaudenzi has been manufacturing filters and screens for a wide range of applications since 1891.

What’s new? The screens are available in North America for the first time. They are stocked at Innovative Recycling Solutions in Greer, South Carolina.

Benefits: Gaudenzi guarantees the filtration grade to a tolerance of plus- or minus-10 microns. It offers competitively priced, flexible and customized media for a variety of melt filters, including filters from Fimic, Erema laser filters, MAS and Break Machinery. The company says the screen is durable and lasts longer than most original equipment filter screens.

Innovative Recycling Solutions, Greer, South Carolina, 877-675-0775, www.irecyclingsolutions.com

Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read.