PETpla.net Insider 03 / 2011

PRODUCTS 39 PET planet insider Vol. 12 No. 03/11 www.petpla.net Compact inline crystallisation RPET pellets need to have the same parameters as new material, in order to produce preforms for food-standard PET bottles. This requires crystalline material and Erema is offering a solution with its Compact inline crystallisation (CIC) system. The company’s Vacurema system produces melt-filtrated strings that are briefly cooled in water and then cut into pellets. The material is fed into a container immediately afterwards. The latent ther- mal energy still contained in the pellets is used for crystallisation – without any additional outside energy required and without any process interruption. Downstream of the CIC, pellets with an AA content below 1ppm can be pro- duced with a newly-developed pellet flusher, enabling production of rPET with the characteristics of new material. Erema claims that CIC can help to save up to €100,000 Euros at a throughput of 1,000 kg/h, with a low investment and machine footprint. www.erema.at Prefrom production with recycled PET Husky Injection Molding Systems’ sustainability solutions now include the company’s HyPET Recycled Flake (RF) system. It is specifically designed to sup- port bottle-to-bottle recycling through the manufactures of preforms with high percentages of food-grade recycled PET flake, which is intended to enable signifi- cant increases to the amount of bottle- to-bottle recycling. The consistent chal- lenge has been increasing the recycled flake content in beverage packaging, while maintaining system performance and high bottle quality. The difference in physical proper- ties and behaviour between flakes and pellets means that recycled flake adds to this challenge. Husky’s HyPET RF system has an injection unit that is specifically designed for recycled flake. Its mixing performance is designed to offer better material homoge- neity, while continuous filtering reduces the presence of black specks. A shortened thermal process minimises thermal degradation. HyPET RF is based on Husky’s High Perfor- mance Package (HPP), and offers the same cycle time, throughput, shot repeatability and weight distribution. By addressing the specific issues in manufacturing PET bottles with the use of recycled PET flake, it is designed to allow manufacturers to introduce recycled PET flake into their products. Those already using recycled PET flake can elimi- nate some of the manufactur- ing and quality challenges while enabling an increase in flake content. Compared to food grade recycled pellets, the process for producing food grade flake does not involve melting or extrusion, which means a lower cost and lower carbon footprint. Husky says it has overcome the tradi- tional disadvantage of food grade flake – the inability to melt filter – by implementing the continuous melt filter. The new extruder on the HyPET RF system is also claimed to eliminate the usual step of upsizing the extrusion screw. www.husky.ca