PETpla.net Insider 05 / 2017

MATERIALS / RECYCLING PET planet Insider Vol. 18 No. 05/17 www.petpla.net 24 Reciclar advances from PET flake producer to high-end producer Argentinian recycling pioneer The Argentinian company Reciclar is continuing its success story in South America in 2017. Following the established business fields of PET flakes and PET recyclates the company has now invested in what is currently the most modern recycling technology: the direct processing of PET flakes to PET strapping band. Since the company was founded in 1994, Reciclar has specialised in the production of washed polyolefin and PET flakes. In 2010, Director Sergio Martin decided to expand the portfolio by adding the production of melt- filtrated recycled PET pellets. After comparing globally established recy- cling technologies he decided for the Austrian plant manufacturer Erema in 2011. The plan was for 7,500t of rPET pellets per year with the Vacurema Basic 1714-T for the thermoforming, packaging and fibre industry. 1,100 kilos per hour – pro- duction expectations fulfilled A delighted Sergio Martin confirms that the Vacurema Basic has already surpassed the contractually agreed performance for the sixth year in suc- cession by 10% and delivers a stable IV value of the pellets in the pro- cess. Thanks to the optical transpar- ency, the reliable colour values and the comprehensive FDA A-H and J approvals, Reciclar can take on short- term orders from new customers. “We are proud to have received the Exporting Excellence Gold Award only recently for our achievements,” states Sergio Martin. PET inline strapping – from recycler to a producer At the beginning of 2017, the company added the production of PET strapping to its portfolio featur- ing the production of PET flakes and recyclates. The Argentinians once again chose Erema as the general contractor for a Vacurema 1510-T inline strapping system in combina- tion with a Tight Strap 550 from the Italian manufacturer Sima (Dietze + Schell Group). The direct processing of washed PET flakes to high-strength PET strapping with an annual capac- ity of around 4,000t was realised. The downstream strapping system from Sima receives the IV-stable melt in an absolutely consistent process directly from the latest generation Vacurema system. The homogeneous melt is routed to the extrusion head double spin pumps, scaled as required and wound into high-performance PET strapping. Flexibility is one key feature of Vacurema: the input materials are washed PET flakes, plus PET recy- clates and ground production waste from thermoforming plants, for exam- ple. The materials are processed at Reciclar also in a mixed state in crystalline or amorphous form and have large, real density differences (down to 150kg/m³), input moisture (up to 1%) and PET fines. The pat- ented vacuum reactor/extruder series masters the difficult input spectrum with considerably reduced energy consumption compared to conven- tional PET processing systems. This pretreatment enables the use of a F.l.t.r.: Daniel Cappeletti, Fernando Gomes Veiga, Luis Dallacqua and Clemens Zittmayr in front of the Vacurema system at Reciclar