Method of Operation
During the production and
processing of PLA foam and film, waste is generated.
Valuable virgin material can be saved by recycling the
waste. Recycled production waste can be reintroduced
into the process for the production of new material.
Using a special
process, the PLA waste is cut into a size
smaller than 1/2”. This size-reduced product is
conveyed into the storage bin of the
Plast
Agglomerator with a pneumatic conveying
system. From the hopper the feed material is
continuously dosed into the agglomeration
chamber by a feeding screw. Through frictional
heat only and mechanical pressure the material
is evenly sintered, within fractions of a
second, through the holes of the die. The
frictional heat and the mechanical pressure can
be adjusted in such a way that the sintering is
performed below the melting point of each type
of plastic. Therefore, working right below the
melting point of the PLA material, this
guarantees a minimum thermal degradation of the
product.
 A
rotating variable-speed, hot cutting device,
cuts the material off after it was pressed
through the holes of a die. These resulting
strings or agglomerates are conveyed by the
cooling air of a fan into the hot-melt
granulator. The end product size of the
agglomerate is determined by the size of the
holes in the screen installed at the bottom of
the hot-melt granulator.
The homogeneous size
agglomerates from the hot-melt granulator are
pneumatically conveyed and discharged into a
cascade sifter. The sifting fan pulls fines out
with the air, which are returned via a conveying
pipe with cyclone to the Plast Agglomerator. The
free flowing granules with high bulk density can
be collected in super sacks or silos. |
