Extrusion International 5-2023

21 Extrusion International 5/2023 Quality Inspection with Sorting and Material Analysis Systems With more than 100 years of expe- rience, the Reiling Group of Compa - nies is constantly striving to create new opportunities for the optimal recycling and utilization of valuable materials. Reiling contributes to re- source conservation as well as envi- ronmental and climate protection with efficient recycling processes. In addition to recycling glass, pho - tovoltaic panels and wood, Reiling operates PET recycling plants at its sites in Hamm (Germany), Marien - feld (Germany) and, since 2020, Burgbernheim (Germany). In the PET recycling cycle in par- ticular, the purity of the recycled end product is a prerequisite for rPET to be reused in a variety of ways. The production of new PET bottles or the manufacture of polyester fibers are just two individual examples of the use of rPET. If the highest qual- ity recyclate is used, the recycling loop is closed. The need to produce virginmaterial recedes into the back- ground. To produce recyclate of the high- est grade and quality, Reiling Kunst - stoffrecycling relies on a multi-stage recycling process with state-of-the- art equipment. This is because only pure recyclate can be reused for a wide range of new products. The PET bottles are delivered in the form of briquettes or pressed into bales. First, they are separated, then contaminants are removed, and the bottles are sorted by color. After crushing and washing processes, the PET flakes pass through Sesotec‘s FLAKE PURIFIER+ sorting systems, which perform separation of colors and metals as well as sorting by plas- tic type in a single pass. In addition to state-of-the-art equipment, Reiling‘s internal qual - ity management system throughout the entire treatment process ensures that only PET flakes of the high - est purity leave the plant. Complex manual, thermal and visual random sample analyses are necessary to evaluate the recyclate in the recy- cling process. With the new FLAKE SCAN labo- ratory analysis system from Sesotec, Reiling is able to perform an evalu- ation of the quality of plastic flakes within a few minutes. Above all, this enables fast and reliable decisions to be made about the usability of the material. Every single BigBag and ev- ery silo delivery is subjected to precise quality control. The Sesotec FLAKE SCAN material analysis system is in- stalled directly in the plant. This al- lows the material samples from each BigBag to be examined and analyzed precisely and within minutes for for- eign plastics, off-color and metals. Dr. Hanns-Jörg Bentele, Manag - ing Director of Reiling Kunststof- frecycling GmbH: "We had the op - portunity to test the FLAKE SCAN shortly after its market launch and were convinced of its benefits after extensive trials. The FLAKE SCAN analysis system from Sesotec pro- vides us with precise, automatic, and above all, reproducible results for the analysis of material samples in a significantly shorter time. The analysis system relieves the labora- tory. This saves time, and of course, additional costs in this area." Sesotec GmbH www.sesotec.com Learn more about SML's PET sheet lines. Extrusion lines. Engineered to perform. Keeping you on top form. www.sml.at Your needs include highest levels of visual appearance and transparency? SML sheet lines are the right answer. After all, we are one of the leading suppliers of extrusion lines for high-grade sheet.