PETplanet Insider Vol. 24 No. 07+08/23 www.petpla.net 31 TRADE SHOW REVIEW Erema invites customers to Discovery Day and opens new R&D centre 40th anniversary of Erema There was plenty for the guests to admire at the Erema Discovery Day, which was held by plastics recycling machine manufacturer Erema in Ansfelden on the 1st of June. The invitation was accepted by around 400 customers and partners, mainly from Europe, to find out about the wide range of recycling technologies for PO and PET plastic waste. The technology that was presented and explained by Erema experts and guest speakers during lectures in the morning, could then be seen live in-action in the afternoon when the recycling machines were demonstrated in operation. A total of six innovative recycling technologies were on display: Intarema TVEplus DuaFil Compact, Intarema TVEplus RegrindPro + ReFresher, the Corema cascade extrusion system, a Vacurema Inline Sheet line equipped with new EcoGentle technology, the new Intrarema FibrePro:IV machine, and the PCU-TwinScrew. These allowed visitors to witness their performance and the high quality of recycled pellets that they produce. “This wide range of technologies is necessary because the recycling process each of our customers choose depends on the type of plastic, the level of contamination of the input material, and which product will be made using the recycled pellets. Following the expansion of our Ansfelden site and with the new site nearby in St. Marien, we can now demonstrate all these processes, carry out test runs with customers’ material and focus on development work independently of our Customer Centre,” says Erema’s Managing Director Markus Huber-Lindinger. Erema is driving forward research and development work in the company’s new R&D Centre. Two halls with a total area of 1,550m2 and a new office building offering space for 50 workplaces has been built. Here, the company bundles cross-departmental test machines and laboratory facilities for post consumer and inhouse recycling applications. “This is how we make it possible to implement a circular economy for plastics”, says Huber-Lindinger. “With the new R&D centre, we have laid the foundation for further important plastics recycling milestones from Erema. This innovative strength is what has made us stand out over the past 40 years, and we will continue to play this pioneering role.” Christoph Wöss, Business Development Manager, Bottle Recycling at Erema Group reinforces this statement in his presentation ‘Tailor-made PET recycling solutions’ while opening the PET Recycling session, by summarising: “Erema has an European market share of around 41% with its products for PET food end-applications.” Sophie Pachner, R&D Manager Process Engineering at Erema presented the EcoGentel plasticising technology: The core elements of the EcoGentle technology are the adjustment of compression ratios for better solids handling behaviour, the targeted utilisation of shear flows in combination with elongation flows, and a number of other process and rheological optimisations. The the coordinated clash between the shear and elongation flows increases both the melting performance and the dispersive and distributive mixing capacity in the plasticising unit. The result is particularly gentle plasticising combined with high melt homogeneity and a wide process window for more stable operation. Variations in parameters such as the bulk density of the input material, viscosity or temperature of the PET flakes can be compensated as part of the stable process. EcoGentle is claimed to be a particularly gentle method of plasticising at lower temperature that saves energy. The much lower melt temperature has a positive effect on the quality of the melt and the quality of the final rPET pellets. Christian Sommer, Technical Sales Manager, Business Unit Powerfil introduced the laserfilter for PET applications. He started by explaining how the laserfilter works. “Coming from the extruder the contaminated plastic melt flows via a circular distributor ring into the housing between two parallel configured laserdrilled screen discs. The melt is pressed through the screen discs, flows through and leaves the filter in a clean state via the collection channel. The contaminant particles collect on the screen as the melt flows through. A scraper disc with three scrapers on each side rotates between the screen discs. The scraper and discharge screw speeds depend on the pressure and are controlled fully automatically. The pressed on scrapers lift the contaminants immediately from the smooth, hardened screen discs and forward them directly to the discharge system.” The laserfilter is also playing an increasing role in the PET sector. The reason for this is that the increased use of rPET in end products requires high process stability. This stability is also required if the degrees of contamination increase – which is currently the case. The laserfilter processes input material with a degree of contamination of over one per cent. The functional principle avoids dead spaces and makes for short dwell times, which in turn prevents „black spots“ with PET. The high melt and recyclate quality is important in the case of food contact grade applications. The melt losses are reduced below 1% thanks to the newly developed discharge unit. The new LF 2/354 Quattro is able to produce up to 6,000kg/h of filtrated melt. Exciting presentations followed and the pre-evening birthday party was a great success for Erema. www.erema.com F.l.t.r.: Christoph Wöss, Business Development Manager, Bottle Recycling at Erema Group, Sophie Pachner, R&D Manager Process Engineering at Erema and Gerold Breuer, Head of Marketing & Corporate Development at Erema Group GmbH
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