PETpla.net Insider 03 / 2017

CONVEYING 35 PET planet Insider Vol. 18 machines that needed to be supplied with material. However, as part of this ongoing expansion, another four machines were added to the project as planning was still under way. On completion, the project com- prised the design and construction of a material supply system with ten Lux- orbin drying hoppers, six of which with a volumetric capacity of 400l each, and two each with volumetric capaci- ties of 250 and 150l. In this system, the dry air is sup- plied by a Luxor 1200 dry air genera- tor with DryingOrganizer to protect material from being over-dried and hygroscopic polymers from being insufficiently dried. The dry air generator’s control unit can control and monitor up to 16 drying hoppers, associated conveyors and discharge valves, as well as 24 materials handling units. Every drying hopper is assigned a storage tank. pany subsequently built two new halls – one for production and another for a central material supply system and material storage – with the aim of opti- mising material flow. Up until then, the material supply system had been located inside the production hall, which had resulted in corresponding disadvantages because it took up much needed space, created a lot of noise and heat, as well as granulate residues on the floor. The aim had subsequently been to keep the two systems completely separate and keep the pro- duction area free from any stand-alone units, sacks and containers with granu- late and colouring agent. All machines will be equipped with new conveyors and their own colour dosing systems, as well as adapters to make it possible to use the systems interchange- ably should the need arise. At this stage, the materials handling operations had also required full-time attendance by three members of staff who were urgently needed elsewhere. Bergmann commissioned the Northern KFW office of Kunststofftechnik Flink & Wortmann GbR (KFW) – a Motan-Colortronic distribu- tion partner – to design and build the new system. The entire design and construc- tion process, from the first contact from Bergmann to the date the system was commissioned, took no more than six months. When it came to design- ing the system, there were two key considerations that had to be taken into account: one was that the machines had to be directly supplied with material and the other was that dried material had to be always available. This required find- ing a balanced and econom- ical solution regarding the size and number of drying hoppers. Initially, there were 16 injection moulding