37 K SHOW REVIEW PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 12/22 www.petpla.net Additive solutions The Texas-based chemical company SI Group from The Woodlands, north of Houston, launched its new “Evercycle” brand for PET and polyolefin processing at a press conference held at the K’ trade fair on October 20. It was unveiled by Robert Kaiser, VP Polymer Solutions and MD EMEA and Joey Gullion, Senior VP and CCO. The company, which has many years of experience in areas such as the manufacture of performance additives and antioxidant production with 20 manufacturing facilities worldwide, is responding to the industry’s growing need for improvements in circular economy and recyclability. As a result, Evercycle, which consists of five additive solutions, will in future help PET and polyolefin processors to have better control of product colour, process stability and acetaldehyde (AA) levels when producing and using recyclate. According to the company, two of the additives can be used in PET applications, PET-102D (granulate) and PET 103D (liquid). These are intended to control the colour of the actual container in bottle, tray and textile production during the production and processing of rPET. The other additives are intended to provide stabilisation in rigid HDPE and PP packaging (PP-101S), in flexible LDPE packaging (LD-101S) as well as improvement of mechanical performance in LDPE pre-consumer stretch film (LD-104P) respectively. The use of these technologies is expected to bring more plastics into a closed loop and value chain in order to support sustainability and profitability, as well as avoiding any downcycling into lower-value applications. Drawing on the results of a case study, Robert Kaiser discussed likely changes in the quality of PET material due to a steadily growing collection infrastructure for a wide range in quality of post-consumer waste with up to 30% rPET content. “For example, the resulting yellowing of the material could be offset by the use of blue pigments. The quality of material can also be addressed by using optical brighteners or AA scavenger technology if the values are elevated in the original material”, said Kaiser. All three issues could be addressed by the use of PET103D, according to SI Group. www.siigroup.com Robert Kaiser discusses the use of Evercycle in PET processing. Fewer rejects and more efficient control for bottle blowing At the trade fair booth of US engineering firm Agr, the company showed its automated blowing machine control system Process Pilot+, which it introduced at the end of August 2022. It is a combination of hardware and software that shall optimise the manufacturing of PET bottles and make the process more efficient and cost-effective overall, especially when using recyclate. The system is based on Agr’s control system Process Pilot, but according to the company, the blowing machine control’s reaction time during start-up, during changes to the ambient conditions or the control technology for the processed materials is improved while maintaining the same energy efficiency. Marketing Director David Dineff explained how it all works: “With the new system, we want to raise the usable productive capacity, i.e. the yield from the used material, while fundamentally minimising rejects and increasing overall efficiency and profitability.” The combination of software and hardware components, which operate a re-heat stretch-blowing machine in connection with the controls, should thus enable more comprehensive checks and a consequential optimisation of the blow moulding process. “The system contains algorithms that analyse the tiniest changes in material distribution and proactively adjust crucial settings on the blowing machine on the basis of these changes. This ensures that the correct thickness distribution is maintained consistently in the produced bottle,” said David. In this way, the system shall ensure that all produced bottles have the desired quality and performance properties, despite any deviations occurring in the environment, the systems, or the materials during the production process. “Our patented, ‘energy-efficient control technology’, as we call it, uses several control circuits and an adaptive prioritisation of rapid reaction controls to manage the blowing machine functions and control the blowing machine in such a way that the desired container properties are maintained within an efficient timeframe in a cost-effective way,” continued David. This approach enables the system to reduce the effects of process disruptions up to 40% more quickly and to achieve output material distribution up to 65% faster after start-up than earlier systems. This is particularly effective in the use of rPET and its variability. Agr reports that the system is compatible with all major two-stage system manufacturers and is no problem to retrofit. More than 500 Process Pilot systems are currently in operation in factories all over the world and the portfolio is to be further expanded. www.agrintl.com Agr’s K’ show booth
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