The sustainability r-evolution in the PET world has seen the major technology providers develop systems that make a complete returnable-recyclable food-grade PET supply chain feasible.
SACMI's R&D efforts have focused on the possibility of using recycled PET on standard preform production lines for some years now. In fact, the current range of IPS preform presses already lets manufacturers work with up to 100% rPET and up to 50% PET in recycled flake form.
Now, a new solution, exclusive to SACMI and co-developed with the firm's partner Piovan, can boost the latter to 70-75%, providing further advantages in terms of process efficiency and versatility. The company will illustrate how it works at the K 2022 fair in Düsseldorf (19-26 October) where they will showcase a new SACMI IPS 300 press equipped with this unprecedented solution.
Why up to 50%?
Over recent years SACMI has developed a generation of standard machines capable of processing up to 100% rPET and up to 50% in recycled flake form.
So why up to 50%? That question is a good way to begin the illustration of the major new developments that SACMI has achieved with its partner Piovan, the world’s leading supplier of auxiliary equipment and services to the plastics industry.
In general, flakes are processed differently from standard granules due to their different shape and specific weight. Developed by Piovan, and supplied exclusively to SACMI, this specially designed technical solution ensures optimal control of the flake-granule mixture, allowing flake percentages to reach levels never before seen on the market.
Benefits: a higher flake % means lower TCO
The solution consists of a single hopper through which the flake-granule mix flows. This provides two distinct types of advantages.
Firstly, it allows the percentage of flakes in the mix to be increased up to 70-75% (percentages at which no solution on the market currently operates). Secondly, and in some ways even more importantly, it innovates and simplifies the process: the manufacturer no longer needs two separate hoppers to manage the granule and flake lines and this eliminates the complexity of having to control different dryers, temperatures and recipes. The single solution, instead, is cheaper and easier to use.
New SACMI IPS 300
SACMI entered the preform press market over 10 years ago. Since then it has gradually expanded the range, from the IPS220 to the IPS400, all the way up to the IPS300, to be showcased at the fair.
