Warming up to plastics recycling
NGR ready to take off in China
Next Generation Recyclingmaschinen (NGR) brought to CHINAPLAS 2015 the new P:REACT polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling equipment, which made its world premiere only as recently as NPE in March.
The P:REACT follows the design principles of Liquid State Polycondensation (LSP), utilizing the inherent capability of PET to post condensate in the molten phase under vacuum, which leads to an increased intrinsic viscosity (IV).
“It allows us to process PET scrap, increasing the IV from for example, 0.6 IV value to 0.75 or 0.8 in a very short time, say 20-30 minutes,” explained Josef Hochreiter, NGR’s CEO. “This new technology put us in a very good position in the market.”
According to NGR, this high performance vacuum effectively decontaminates the material from harmful chemicals - securing further use of the material for 100% food contact.
“We can now offer a full spectrum of recycling equipment, from post-industrial, post-consumer through to PET recycling,” emphasized Mr Hochreiter. “Together with our Customer Care Center in Taicang, we are ready for many different interesting applications in China.”
He said that PET films and fiber recycling is a very fast growing segment in Asia, offering huge potential for the company.
The company more or less put is focus in Europe and the US in the last few years, according to Mr Hochreiter, but now intends to intensity activities in China following the establishment of the Customer Care Center last year.
“We have done a lot of trials already in Taicang and feel a very high acceptance from the Chinese market,” he said, adding that the pursuit of green manufacturing by the Chinese government will spur the development of recycling sector.
EREMA: Chinese recycling sector aiming for higher quality
2014 was a very successful year for EREMA, as turnover rose 21% to a record €115 million in the financial year 2014-15.
“This growth is due primarily to the new INTAREMA plant generation and confirms that this innovation represents an attractive technology for customers,” said EREMA CEO Manfred Hackl. “We are very happy about the results.”
The US, Europe and Asia are the three major markets for EREMA. Surprisingly, he said, there was strong demand for recycling machines even in some countries like Spain or Italy where the economy was not performing well.
At CHINAPLAS 2015, the company presented an INTAREMA 1007 TVEplus system with an EREMA melt filter SW4/104 RTF. The system, with a throughput of 300-350kg/h, demonstrated live the efficient recycling of heavily printed low density polyethylene (LDPE) materials.
The new INTAREMA generation of systems features EREMA’s core technology Counter Current, an innovation in the interface area of the cutter/compactor and extruder.
The difference with the Counter Current system is that the material spout in the cutter/compactor is now reversed and thus moves against the direction of the extruder. The result of this inverse-tangential configuration is increased process stability and, at the same time, considerably higher throughput.
“The Chinese recycling sector is growing significantly and no doubt there is a demand for higher quality machines, particular in the last two years,” observed Mr Hackl, who acknowledged that EREMA could only sell machines in the premium niches in China previously.
“That is what we are showing here, an advanced machine turning difficult, heavily printed material into high quality pellets,” he said.
Starlinger: Recycling getting more interesting here
Cement packaging is one of Starlinger’s focus at CHINAPLAS 2015. The Austrian Group’s patented AD*STAR block bottom valve sacks are made of coated polypropylene (PP) fabric and produced on the ad*starKON conversion lines using a special welding technique.
Arnold Sillip, Regional Sales Manager, Starlinger, revealed that more visitors were looking for woven packaging machinery than recycling equipment this year, which came not just from China but other parts of the world.
There were, however, Chinese customers interested in Starlinger’s PET recycling machinery. “The recycling market in China is getting more interesting. Some of our lines have already started running here,” he said.
Starlinger viscotec, a business unit of the group, introduced its PET sheet line viscoSHEET, which produces rigid films for food packaging from up to 100% rPET at guaranteed IV levels.
Processing rPET, virgin PET and Post-Industrial Regrind (PIR), the line produces sheet compliant with the prevailing US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) standards for food contact applications.
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Austrian plastics industry leading in niche markets 2014 was a very good year for Austrian plastics industry, according to Dietmar Schwank, Consul (Commercial Affairs) of Austrian Consulate General Guangzhou.
“For the Austrian companies, they know a long time ago that the local market is too small for them,” noted Mr Schwank. “So they intended to go outside and position themselves as market leaders in the world.” Austria is one of the leading names in the global plastics industry. In particular, the recycling cluster is performing well as the names of EREMA, NGR, Starlinger, etc. come to mind as some of the leading players in the market. “Austria is a strong performer in a lot of niche markets. At the same time, the awareness is high when it comes to environmental conservation,” Mr Schwank said. “Competence in engineering combines with the consciousness to protect the environment lead to the success of our companies, particularly in recycling.” Within Asia, China is the biggest export market for Austrian plastics industry. Some Austrian companies are rather well known in China. However, a problem exists in doing business with Chinese customers - convincing them to turn to more expensive yet higher quality machinery. This scenario is changing gradually, Mr Schwank pointed out, as the market for Austrian companies in China has grown by about 30% in 2014. “The Austrian Economic Chambers (WKO) has worked hard to facilitate trading and making connections for the industry,” he said. “For example, we are told recently that there will be strong demand for plastics sheet recycling equipment in Guangdong, which is good news for the Austrian companies.” |
