Equipment Spotlight | JUNE 2021 Plastics Granulators

by MARY M. THORNTON

Plastics were 12.2 percent of municipal solid waste (MSW) generation in 2018 (most recent data available), according to the American Chemistry Council. As the recycling industry strives to increase efficiencies in reducing the impact of plastic in the environment and marketplace, granulators may be involved in the process.

Established as the first granulator company in 1939, “Cumberland leads the way as the world’s brand leader in size reduction equipment, with the broadest line of granulators and shredders. Our top-of-the-line series includes the FX700, FX1000, FX1600 and Cumberland beside-the-press granulators, available to meet the growing needs of the plastics and recycling industries,” Andre Adams, senior product manager, stated.

Cumberland staff recently worked with a client to quantify specific improvements that grinding and reusing plastic scrap had, in that client’s operations. The previous, dated, central granulation process was confirmed as financially detrimental. The inefficient and complex workflow was damaging the firm’s bottom line, causing the loss of 20,000 to 30,000 lbs. of reclaimed material every year. To eliminate the issue, Cumberland’s beside-the-press (BTP) granulator technology was installed. Cumberland’s John Farney and Gary Gill identified the challenges in their customer’s operations and knew that a BTP configuration would improve efficiency.

That change, along with reconfiguring workflow, allowed the company to expand and grow, all with existing staff. Workflow is also now more efficient because Cumberland’s top-of-the-line FX Series equipment is involved. Each of Cumberland’s BTP granulators feature several durable, high performance machines, and all are equipped to integrate with any molding or extrusion operation for resin reclaim, directly at the side of the press.

Adams described how that customer “gained tangible results in several key areas, including eliminating several manual steps, which were replaced with a less complex process, reducing clean-out times for more efficiency and substantially decreasing the need to handle regrind materials, which made the process safer. If you’d like to assess your size reduction processes, the experts at Cumberland can help you determine the best plan and products to achieve optimum efficiency.”

Foremost Machine Builders offers a 24 x 24” granulator, Model HD-7, which utilizes a four-bladed, open, ribbed, staggered, skewed rotor in grinding PET bottles and other tough materials. The Model LD-7 is a two-bladed, open, ribbed, hook-knife rotor design and available for grinding HDPE and polycarbonate blow molded parts. Each machine is equipped with a rear access door to the cutting chamber for easy cleanout or knife adjustment. Air feed and mechanical conveyor or hand feed hoppers are available as standard for these units. “We’ve served the plastics industry for over 60 years and along with manufacturing a complete line of granulators for plastics recycling, Foremost Machine Builders also offers material handling, storage and blending solutions,” Walt Folkl, sales manager said.

Herbold Meckesheim USA, a subsidiary of Herbold Meckesheim Germany, sells and installs durable, high quality size reduction equipment (granulators, shredders, grinders, pulverizers, etc.) and wash-line systems for the recycling of all kinds of industrial and post-consumer plastics. Units are designed as modular “building blocks” so that a system can be extended or modified according to the customer’s requirements.

Last fall, Herbold introduced five models of the HOS Heavy-Duty Pipe Shredder, which efficiently (up to approximately 3,400 lbs. per hour) reduces large (to 0.8’ in diameter); thick-walled plastic pipes to chips of approximately 2.5 to 4 sq.in. Herbold’s extensive line of granulators includes heavy-duty, general-use, and compact machines. Popular HB and SB Series horizontal models employ a hydraulic ram or screw-feed mechanism, which makes them quieter and more efficient (30 to 50 percent higher throughput) than same-size gravity-fed cutting chambers. Suitable for dry or wet operation, these granulators are capable of processing up to eight tons of plastic per hour.

The blade geometry of Herbold granulators, in combination with an open rotor, “provides for cleaner cuts, higher capacity, fewer fines and less noise. The knives can be removed easily and safely and adjusted precisely in a fixture outside the unit. Furthermore, Herbold Meckesheim knives last longer because their design provides 18 millimeters of regrind capacity, nearly twice that of most competing models. Yet another benefit of Herbold horizontal granulators is a diagonally split housing that allows complete access to the cutting chamber for faster maintenance. And the rotor bearings are positioned outside the cutting chamber, to keep grease from contaminating product,” said David Lefrancois, president.

He continued, “The trend toward recycling and sustainability is on the upswing and thanks to recent advances in automated separation equipment, more receivers of recycled plastics are separating the waste stream by material type, for single-line recycling systems. This makes it easier for generators of plastic waste to recycle and consequently more likely that they will.”

Zerma offers the plastics recycling industry a full range of industrial recycling machinery; heavy-duty and central plastics granulators, beside the press grinders, single shaft shredders and PVC pulverizers. E. J. Stratman, national sales director, commented, “Along with auxiliary equipment such as conveyors, separators and metal detection, we are one of the very few recycling machinery makers with the whole equipment spectrum under one roof. This gives us the most economical advantage in assembling a size reduction system that will best fit the requirement of each client’s operation.”

Zerma machines can be found in plants across the world. Zerma’s plastic waste shredders and heavy-duty granulators can play an integral recycling role in plastic shredding as part of injection molding, extrusion, blow molding, rotational molding, thermoforming, blown film, cast film factories and general recycling applications. Zerma products process rejects, runners, sprues, parts, purgings, pipe, profiles, bags, bottles, bales, buckets, tubs, film, fiber, containers, drums, IBCs – in short, anything made of plastic.

“When integrating auxiliary equipment such as our belt conveyors, separators and air conveyors, we can provide complete recycling systems for creating a valuable product, using virtually any plastics initial infeed material. Powered by German engineering, our stand-alone units and custom-built systems are efficient, reliable and easy to install with safe service and great results,” noted Stratman.

Published in the June 2021 Edition