- Wet shredder copes with highly contaminated film
- Hydrocyclone separation eliminates need for separation tanks
- Products are made up to 100% from recycled material
For the production of high-quality regrind Herbold Meckesheim GmbH has installed a model line at Rodepa in the Netherlands. Granulate is produced from a mix of plastic waste which is then used for the production of bin liners, protective sheets and construction foils. Up to 100% recycled material content is possible. The plant can cope with highly contaminated trade and LDPE film as well as with extremely thin-walled film. The wet shredder integrated into the washing plant and the hydrocyclone separation technology are the main features of the recycling line.
The hydrocyclone technology eliminates the need for separation tanks (source: Herbold Meckesheim)
Wet shredder copes with highly contaminated film
Different kind of film waste puts different demand on the single recycling steps. Such film is usually highly contaminated (degree of contamination may be as high as 50%). This means that the quantity of different contaminations corresponds to the quantity of films in the film washing line. In order to separate this type of contamination from the film as early as the pre-size reduction step, a wet shredder, especially designed for this purpose, is employed.
Herbold wet shredder HGM 60/200 (source: Herbold Meckesheim)
Hydrocyclone separation allows higher degree of purity than traditional swim-sink-tanks
The feeding materials consist of a mix of several different plastics. The real challenge here is the separation of unwanted plastics. In the field of wet film recycling, Herbold opts for a separation by means of hydrocyclone separation. Heavier plastic components can be separated from the polyolefin, which is considered as good material of a film washing line. Hydrocyclone separation steps allow much higher degrees of purity than traditional swim-sink-tanks.
Post-consumer film is the feeding material at Rodepa Plastics
A further advantage of the hydrocyclone separation step is the high amount of water present in the water circuit. This ensures, together with the revolving forces arising due to the hydrocyclone, a very good washing of the film. Deposits of organic substances, a frequent feature of film from household waste, are easily removed by washing. In contrast, films from supermarkets often have a high percentage of paper in the form of affixed labels. LLDPE films from supermarkets are ideal as feeding material for recyclate used for the production of new film.
