Opening up new applications with post-industrial recyclate
For many film manufacturers, it has long been routine to refeed edge trim cut-offs and start-up rolls into the production process. However, the more complex the film, the more difficult post-industrial recycling becomes. It becomes particularly challenging if the films consist of several material classes, are laminated or printed or if the plastics used are not compatible with each other, as is the case with laminates made of PET and PE or multilayer films made of polyethylene and polyamide. A high share of impurities due to additives, printing inks and adhesives also makes recycling considerably more difficult. “If production residues have different properties to the original raw materials, they can significantly disrupt the manufacturing process or impair quality,” says Christoph Lettowsky, who advises customers on this topic at Reifenhäuser Blown Film.
Post-industrial recyclate as a valuable raw material
However, production waste is a valuable raw material: “As a rule, raw materials account for up to 80 percent of material costs,” says Lettowsky. “With our EVO Fusion technology, we have therefore created a solution that allows producers to feed edge trim offcuts, start-up waste and leftovers from further processing back into their production without high processing costs.” The EVO Fusion blown film line has a twin-screw extruder that combines a good mixing effect with efficient degassing.
The EVO Fusion blown film line already enables manufacturers worldwide to process recyclates with fluctuating quality and increase the proportion of recyclates in production. The technology also makes it possible to produce new film from film waste in a single step - without any pelletizing or pre-drying. This “fluff-to-film” process eliminates a very energy-intensive process step.
The EVO Fusion twin-screw extruder processes PIR and PCR as fluff or pellets into high-performance blown films.
Application examples: Processing post-industrial recyclate into blown film
Recycling adhesive-coated film into trash bags
Foreign substances, such as those required for the adhesive effect of adhesive-coated film, make recycling difficult. However, with the help of the fluff-to-film process and EVO Fusion technology, production waste from adhesive-coated film can be recycled easily. The result is a film that consists completely of recyclate and can be processed into trash bags, for example.
Recycling barrier film into construction film
The different layers of barrier films, which are coextruded from raw materials of different material classes and an additive for the barrier effect, cannot be separated from each other during recycling, which prevents recycling. EVO Fusion technology can be used to produce construction film with a recycled content of 70 percent from the residues of these films, for example.
Recycling duplex laminates into laminating film for stand-up pouches
Production waste from duplex laminates consists of raw materials from different material classes, for example PET and PE, often supplemented by foreign materials such as printing inks and adhesives. Thanks to EVO Fusion technology, these film scraps can be processed into laminating film for stand-up pouches with a recycled content of up to 60 percent.
Recycling triplex laminates into packaging film
Triplex laminates have an additional raw material component. With EVO Fusion technology, such raw material shreds can still be processed into a film with a 52% recycled content.
Opening up new fields of application with post-industrial recyclate
With EVO Fusion technology, recycling does not necessarily mean a closed cycle in which remnants of a product are turned into virgin material of the same product. “Due to an inhomogeneous material composition, post-industrial recyclate cannot always be returned to the original production cycle, even if the raw material quality is much higher compared to post-consumer recyclates,” says Lettowsky. “Instead, manufacturers can use the valuable raw material to supply other existing production lines or expand their product range - and save considerable raw material costs.”
How you benefit from EVO Fusion:
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