Page 42 - Plastics News September 2022

The project partners for the presen-
tation at the show are AVK Plastics,
which produces pallets on ENGEL duo
injection molding machines in Balk,
Netherlands, where some of these ma-
chines are already using the new two-
stage process, and IPP, headquartered
in Ennepetal, Germany, a specialist in
logistics solutions for supply chains.
The mold for this exhibit comes from
Haidlmair (Nußbach, Austria) and the
high-performance melt filter for ef-
fective removal of solid and elastomer
be created – even from contaminated is important to achieve high product contamination from ETTLINGER
plastic waste. Processing plastic flakes quality. Residual moisture, and volatile (Königsbrunn, Germany). R-Cycle is
directly significantly improves the en- substances originating from material
ergy and CO2 footprint compared to degradation or ink residues, can pass another partner.
processing regranulate. through the melt filter. If these com- Information transparency for high-
After sorting and cleaning, plastics pounds are not removed before the quality recycling
The pallets are equipped with an RFID
from post-consumer and post-industri- melt is injected, this can lead to pores chip and a QR code, which is applied
al collection are typically ground, com- on the inside and defects on the sur-
pounded, filtered and pelletized, and face of the part. This not only harms by in-mold labelling. Show visitors can
finally fed into the injection molding the visual appeal, but can also reduce use the QR code to retrieve informa-
process as regranulate. This means the the mechanical load bearing capacity of
plastic has to be melted twice. Pelletiz- the part.
ing the recycled material is an energy- Another special feature of the ENGEL
intensive process which typically also solution is that the first plasticizing
involves logistics effort. This process unit in the two-stage process also has
step is eliminated in the two-stage pro- the task of buffering raw material. This
cess. Based on calculations by ENGEL, guarantees a continuous process which
the required energy for manufacturing supports the use of smaller screws to
the product is reduced by 30%. ensure further cost savings. tion about the material and the recy-
The new process is perfectly suited for Conventional injection molding ma- cling process from R-Cycle database in
large-volume molded parts, many of chines as the basis real time.
ENGEL joined the R-Cycle Commu-
which, such as pallets, transport boxes ENGEL is demonstrating the new two- nity in spring 2022. The objective of
and waste containers, are already made stage process at the K show with the
from recycled materials. Integrated de- production of dolly pallets. A blend of this cross-company initiative is to in-
gassing extends the usage to applica- polyolefins from a post-industrial col- troduce digital product passports for
tions in the packaging and automotive lection is being processed on an EN- plastics products. Recycling relevant
information is automatically recorded
industry. GEL duo 12060H/80Z/900 injection as early as the product manufacturing
The new process is perfectly suited for molding machine.
large-volume molded parts, many of Production cells for processing recy- stage. Therefore, for example, waste
which, such as pallets and other logis- cling flakes in the new two-stage pro- sorting plants can identify recyclable
tics products, are already made from cess consists of conventional injection plastics more accurately and deliver
single grade elements for recycling. In
recycled materials. molding machines. This also makes a this way, it is possible to stop the down-
New degassing unit improves product contribution towards lowering the re-
quality cycling costs and accelerating the es- cycling that has been prevalent so far
ENGEL developers focused on the de- tablishment of a circular economy for and to recycle plastics equally or even
gassing unit in particular. Degassing plastics. with added value.

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