Machinery producer Coperion has started operations at its plastics recycling innovation centre in Niederbiegen near Weingarten, southern Germany.
The Recycling Innovation Centre is situated in the immediate vicinity of Coperion’s existing test centre for Bulk Solids Handling, expanding the company’s test lab capacities in Germany alone up to 5,000 square meters.
The high-tech centre allows Coperion’s customers to test every recycling process step, from material handling and feeding to extrusion, compounding, pelletising, material postprocessing, and deodorisation. Extensively equipped recycling systems are available that can be modified in myriad ways, depending upon the specific requirements of the recyclate to be produced.
Machinery available include the Fluidlift ecodry for material flash drying during conveying; the Mix-a-Lot bulk solid mixer for creating pre-mixes including flakes or powders; and a ZS-B MEGAfeed side feeder, especially for extruding and compounding plastic recyclates with bulk densities starting as low as 20 kg/m³ at high throughputs.
“With this new Recycling Innovation Centre, we’re in a position where we can simulate the entire plastics recycling process,” said Massimo Serapioni, general manager of Coperion’s Recycling Business Unit. “Our customers can test the complete process, from mechanical pre-treatment of plastics in Herbold Meckesheim’s Test Centre up to compounding and pelletizing, prior to making the investment. As a supplier of entire recycling systems, we are very proud to be able to offer our customers this enormous added value.”
The company has already run a first set of tests for its customers, in which it developed and tested new sustainable products and recycling processes, it said in a statement without adding further details.
Source: sustainableplastics.com
