Extrusion International 5-2023

51 Extrusion International 5/2023 MEASUREMENT TECHNOLOGY, RECYCLING – CASE STUDY "Not only do we save time, but we also get clear, reproducible results" RCS relies on SIKORA technology for recycling The RCS Group is a family-run, medium-sized recycling and waste management company founded in 1985 and based in Werne, Germany. Today, the activities are bundled into three business segments. While RCS Entsorgung GmbH coordinates the transport and disposal of waste for commercial customers, RCS Rohstoffverwertung GmbH sorts PET flakes for the non-food plastics processing industry. In addition, RCS Plastics GmbH processes the latter into high-quality regranulate for preform and beverage bottle manufacturers. To ensure the required food quality of the recycled material, the company group relies on SIKORA's PURITY CONCEPT V for the quality control of the rPET flakes and pellets. I mpurities in the material can lead to considerable problems in the production of beverage bottles with rPET pellets. In addition to the appearance, the functionality can also be impaired, so that bottles can even burst if the material qual- ity is insufficient. Therefore, the RCS Group uses SIKORA's inspection and analysis system PURITY CONCEPT V in the laboratory to check the qual- ity before further processing of the regranulate into preforms. A material sample containing 80 g of rPET pellets is placed on the sample tray of the testing device. Within 30 seconds, the tray is automati - cally moved to the inspection area, scanned with the integrated cam- era and analyzed. A projector marks contaminated pellets in color direct- ly on the sample tray. Simultaneous- ly, the affected material is displayed on the monitor with an indication of the size of the contamination. This facilitates the assignment and removal of contaminated grains for further analysis. "With the PURITY CONCEPT V, we can find contaminants in just a few seconds. This previously required up to 45 minutes of manual sorting," says Pascal Renner, Head of Quality Management at RCS. "Not only do we save time, but we also get clear, reproducible results. With the sys- tem, we detect black spots as small as 50 µm; the human eye can't keep up here." For quality control, the RCS Group has defined its own limits that the recycled material produced must not exceed. Immediately after sam- ple analysis, it is apparent whether or not the batch meets the required criteria. The test results are docu- mented and stored for traceability for 5 years. In addition to black spots, the recycling company also checks Cedric Steeg, Employee in Quality Assurance, holds material sample in front of the PURITY CONCEPT V The clear marking the contamination on the sample tray facilitates the removal and further analysis