PETpla.net Insider 10 / 2010

PREFORM PRODUCTION 46 PET planet insider Vol. 11 No. 10/10 www.petpla.net Volcanic Act Moretto Hall 11 Booth H57 Italian company Moretto has deployed a volcanic mineral and modular design con- cepts to help achieve high standards of efficiency, flex- ibility and effectiveness in its new range of Flowmax PET drying systems. The process of achieving good quality processes in drying plastic granulate materials involves the man- agement and control of ten factors that influence the process. These are: type of material; granule size; bulk and density; dew point; resistance time; specific airflow; initial and final air moisture content; and viscosity. A further influence is how low the dewpoint is, which is the tempera- ture at which moisture condenses on relatively cool surfaces. The lower the dew point, the more the air is able to absorb and remove moisture. The treatment of highly hygroscopic polymers, which tend to absorb mois- ture from the air, requires constant performance; automatically variable airflow; and high performance with a constant dewpoint at -65°C. Zeolites reduce energy consumption Italian ancillary equipment manu- facturer Moretto SpA has introduced a new drying system for plastics, partic- ularly PET, that uses zeolite minerals. Zeolites are of volcanic origin, formed where volcanic rocks and ash layers react with alkaline groundwater. They are aluminosilicate members of the family of microporous solids known as ‘molecular sieves’, a term that refers to a particular property of these mate- rials, which is the ability to selectively sort molecules based primarily on a size exclusion process. Moretto says that the use of zeo- lites in its new Flowmax drying system The dewpoint of the material has major influence on the process of achieving good quality in the drying process