Page 79 - Plastics News August 2024
P. 79
TECHNOLOGY NEWS
had to put together a bunch of building blocks rately, he said. The slightly higher price – in the
to get here,” he said. range of 2-3% – is a recognition of the value of
an autonomous system, he explained.
Key steps were the development of the MAX-
AI robotic system, which uses a visioning sys- BHS didn’t jack up the price because “we really
tem to identify materials by appearance; BHS’ view this as kind of an enabler that we see going
Total Intelligence Platform, which uses sensors forward, not only for our company but really just
and software to provide real-time data on MRF trying to drive an initiative toward recycling and
performance; and the pairing of the AI-powered recovery,” he said.
visioning system with optical sorters.
BHS has a patent covering how the system gath-
As opposed to a line, the loop approach also al- ers data and decides how to move and sort ma-
lows for a much smaller footprint, in the range of terial – essentially the humanless decision-mak-
one-sixth or one-fifth the size of a linear system, ing process. This first container loop is a jumping
Brooks said. That makes it ideal for urban facili- off point for other systems with autonomous
ties without much available space. control, Brooks said.
Brooks noted that the system would also work “I have this dream of a lights-out facility, where
for smaller municipalities that have too much material is brought in, it’s all processed, pro-
material to sort manually – especially with dif- cessed material is run out the back, and you
ficult labor markets – but not enough to justify have one or two maintenance personnel that are
buying half a dozen optical sorters and robots. running the whole thing,” Brooks said. “Some
people tell me that’s a little bit of a pipe dream,
In terms of cost, BHS has initially priced the sys- and I’m OK with that.”
tem at only slightly more than what it would cost
to buy each of the pieces of equipment sepa- SOURCE – PLASTICS RECYCLING UPDATE
Guill Tool introduces new blow moulding extru-
sion series
uill Tool, a provider of extrusion tool- extruder layout and, in most cases, accepts ex-
ing, offers its Series 1000. This series of isting tooling. Features include fixed centre or
Gblow moulding extrusion dies, features adjustable, built-in cartridge heaters, low inven-
a core diameter between 8.5 (219.5 mm) – 10 tory, expandable to multi-layer, heated core pin,
(254.0 mm). Model 1025 uses material blends one-piece body/flow diverter and split feed bal-
which are ideal for medical, automotive and spe- anced flow.
cialty packaging.
Most products should be run fixed. Users need
Guill Tool to change only one component to become ful-
ly adjustable. The cartridge heaters offer even
Series 1000 is available as single layer, co-ex- heat for better flow and ensure there aren’t any
trusion or triple extrusion. It adapts to existing
cold spots. Low inventory produces no burning
August 2024 PLASTICS NEWS 81
