MATERIALS / RECYCLING PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 10/21 www.petpla.net 29 Innosort Flake, which is equipped with a front and a rear full-colour RGB camera and the Flying Beam NIR optical sensor, allows for a dual-sided colour detection and can therefore detect and sort out transparent, opaque and two-sided colour contaminants, as well as polymer and metal contaminants. Tomra’s Technical Flake Expert, Robert Glaser, explained, the company is benefi ting from what they call the ‘Common Sorting Platform’, where they are in-house developing the same core technologies for e.g., sensors, software and ejector for their recycling, mining and food machines, all apart from mechanical differences due to different applications and sorting tasks. This also applies for the two fl ake sorting machines. They have their own PCB (printed circuit board) ‘brains’ but the common platform means that upgrades developed within Tomra’s R&D department and tested at the test centres, can be brought to market faster. There is reduced risk to the customer; a common platform ensures wider experience in operation and faster detection and remedy of any problematic issues, as well as development and implementation of improvements. Practical demonstrations After the theory was explained, Fabrizio Radice introduced the practical demonstration, which was orchestrated and explained in real time by Alberto Piovesan and Ida Semb, using the machinery that had, until that point, sat silently in the corner of the test centre. The fi rst batch to be processed was a typical mixture of clear-light blue PET fl akes, with an initial contamination level of 5.4%. The fi rst sorting step on the Innosort decreased the contamination level down to 1.8% and did so with a throughput of 1,500 kg/h/m. Running the accept fraction from the Innosort Flake through the Autosort Flake brought the contamination further down to 0.2% Alberto Piovesan explained that for Tomra as well as the whole recycling industry, in PET there is a strong focus on getting PVC content reduced as much as possible. The boxes of initially rejected material from both machines were then put through the same process again to further concentrate the contaminations and recover any ejected good PET fl akes. As the purifi ed, good material from this ‘recovery step’ is mixed in with the initial input material, it is required that it has the same or a lower input contamination, so that over time the input material will have the same or a lower contamination level. This can then improve the whole process and was proved by the recovery steps demonstrated. SUSTAINABLE SOLUT IONS TO BOOST A CIRCULAR ECONOMY L IQUID COLOURS & ADDI T IVES FOR RECYCLED PET Stand E22 Team Tomra at the Test Center Opening
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