ICMA SAN GIORGIO SPA organized a successful open house together with Filtec Italia Sas and Ettlinger of Germany at their offices in San Giorgio su Legnano, near Milan, on February 19-20, 2013. The three companies play a leading role in their respective fields: recycling of composites, filtration systems, and cutting devices. The event was dedicated to heterogeneous recycling of advanced plastic waste.
Leaders from technical publications/media were also present at the company's headquarters in San Giorgio su Legnano, near Milan, along with 70 selected people from all over the world. This impressive turnout confirmed that there is great interest in recycling technology and gave ICMA SAN GIORGIO the opportunity to illustrate the most important technological developments currently available in its range of twin-screw co-extruders, and its turnkey lines for recycling applications, in which the Milan-based company specializes and for which it is known worldwide.
"Extruders dedicated to recycling are an example of technological excellence of which we are very proud and which testifies to my company's commitment to the study and creation of technology in favor of a sustainable economy," said Giorgio Colombo, CEO of ICMA SAN GIORGIO.
Three innovative systems were presented that when working in combination, recycling heterogeneous waste, give positive results in the same number of key factors: innovation, differentiation, profitability.
Two live demonstrations were carried out during the open day on a line developed by ICMA San Giorgio "a co-rotating twin-screw extruder", whose technological status is considered state-of-the-art and optimized for advanced recycling.
The first demonstration involved the transformation of heterogeneous packaging waste, which mainly includes polyolefins, but also contains barrier film, metallized film, printed film and so on. Normally, this kind of waste cannot be recycled as-is or used to manufacture low-cost products such as low-pressure moldings. The extruder used, on the other hand, gives the product superior characteristics that allow the use of the material in more sophisticated applications, obtaining a value-added product.
The second demonstration also offered an almost advanced example of recycling, i.e. the recovery of automotive fenders. These components are made of polypropylene, modified with thermoplastic rubber to increase the elastic modulus and with mineral fillers to boost robustness.
All of the above was possible thanks to the unique mixing performance achievable only with ICMA twin-screw co-rotating technology. Another important aspect is the extreme efficiency of the degassing system which is much more efficient than other technological solutions; this benefit allows maximum extraction of volatile substances, normally at high content in such a matrix. The co-rotation technology also offers the unique opportunity to fill or reinforce the polymer, to obtain (although this aspect was not part of the demonstration) an even more attractive product in terms of utilization.
A continuous, latest-generation ERF screen-changer developed by Ettlinger is installed downstream of the extruder. The device is fully automatic and achieves extremely high performance filtration levels, to the order of 150 micron, even with a very high percentage of contaminants and without requiring the constant presence of an operator. Downstream, the line would have an underwater granulator, specifically for this process tuned by Filtec. The underwater technology allows immediate cooling of the material, thus guaranteeing a very precise and consistent cut, even with highly complex materials.
The venue of the event was the ICMA San Giorgio Spa location in Via Madonnina, 75 - 20010 San Giorgio su Legnano (Milan - Italy)
The program was as follows:
- 10 a.m. - Registration
- 10.30 a.m. - Welcome speech (G. Colombo, ICMA San Giorgio)
- 10.40 a.m. - Advantages of co-rotating twin-screw extruders for advanced recycling plants (C. Moneta, ICMA San Giorgio)
- 11.00 am - Continuous ERF melt filters, the high technology in filtration (I. Talenti, Ettlinger)
- 11.20 a.m. - High quality in the granulation of recycled materials (ME Veronese, Filtec)
- 11:40 a.m. - Demo: recycling of post-consumer fender waste (automotive)
- 24:30 - Lunch
- 14:00 - Demo: post-consumer waste film packaging recycling
- 15:00 - B2B meetings
ICMA SAN GIORGIO SPA (www.icmasg.it)is an Italian company that belongs to a family group with more than 100 years of industrial heritage in the mechanical and metallurgical industry. With more than 40 years of experience in the production of plastic processing machinery, ICMA is today one of the leading suppliers of co-rotating twin-screw extruders and turnkey systems for the compounding equipment industry, sheet and paper extrusion and all kinds of special plants where co-rotating technology can offer a competitive advantage.
For more information: Laura Zoia sales [at] icmasg.it or phone +39 0331 407004
