Extrusion International 2-2022

38 Extrusion International 2/2022 RECYCLING – CASE STUDY “EREMA machines have delivered excellent results at our company over all these years. Featuring industry- leading technology, these machines are also easy to use, very reliable, and they have always met our ex- pectations. Even on particularly challenging projects,” says Anviplas CEO Aleix Vintró, who took over the busi- ness from his father Joan, who founded the company together with Aleix’ grandfather and uncle. He high- lights the recycling of barrier fi lm as an example, which consists of three different layers of material. Employing 64 people, Anviplas recycles post-industrial and post-consumer plastic waste, especially HD and LD- PE as well as PP, to make recycled pellets in all colour variations. The production capacity is 1,800 tonnes per month. An EREMA type INTAREMA ® 1716 TVEplus ® recycling machine with screen changer is in operation at the site in Navarcles (Barcelona) for processing the PP material stream. This patented extruder system was developed for handling dif fi cult-to-process materi- als, such as heavily printed fi lms as well as very moist waste. This machine is characterised by its optimised 3-stage degassing system; fi rstly by preheating and predrying the material in the preconditioning unit, sec- ondly because the screw design allows reverse degas- sing, and thirdly in the degassing zone of the extruder. “With TVEplus ® technology, this is located after the melt fi ltration, so that only completely melted, fi ltered and homogenised material can pass through the de- gassing zone,” explains Jan Stöger, Sales Organisation Manager at EREMA. Anviplas customers manufacture a huge bandwidth of products made using their recycled pellets. They range from various fi lm products, such as stretch, shrink, mulch and silage fi lms, to irrigation, corrugated and high-pressure pipes, as well as containers such as tubs, bottles, barrels and crates. All these applications require recycled pellets that meet the highest quality speci fi cations. “That is precisely our strength,” says Aleix Vintró. “We produce the highest possible qual- ity recyclate, because we want to continue to offer our customers products that optimally meet their needs and open up business opportunities that are cost effec- tive and environmentally sound.” That is why Anviplas is currently working intensively on improving the recy- cling process for complex multilayer materials. Once again, EREMA is a reliable partner. In February 2022 the Repeats Group, a pan-European platform for LDPE recycling, and Anviplas announced, that Repeats has made an investment in the Spanish re- cycling company. For Repeats this investment inAnviplas represents an important step in building a pan-Europe- an plastics recycling platform. Under Repeats’ leader- ship, the Company plans to nearly double its production capacity to meet the growing demand for recycled LDPE in Europe. Aleix Vintró will continue to lead the Spanish operations and expansion plans going forward. Working Together Over Generations The Spanish recycling company Anviplas has been involved in plastics recycling for more than 30 years, during which time it has built up extensive know- how that now bene fi ts customers throughout Europe, in Africa and in Asia. Their cooperation with EREMA is almost as long. Since 1991, Anviplas has relied on the technology and service provided by the Austrian recyclingmachine manufacturer EREMA Engineering Recycling Maschinen und Anlagen GmbH Unterfeldstr. 3, 4052 Ansfelden, Austria www.erema.com Aleix Vintró, CEOAnviplas, and Joan Vintró at the Navacles plant. An EREMA INTAREMA® 1716 TVEplus® from EREMA is in operation there