Extrusion International USA 6-2019

47 Extrusion International 6/2019 Individual Variety with High Degree of Automation Getecha is consistently becoming a system integrator for the realisation of complete solutions for the granulation and reprocessing of plastic waste close to production. At the centre of these largely automated systems are always project-specifically configured hopper and infeed granulators from the rotary cutter machine range. At this year’s K, the company showed some of these customer-oriented granulators for the granulation of processing waste from the injection moulding and blow moulding technology. The GRS 180 with a highly compact design is a beside-the-press or central granulator which was designed for setup in production environments, subject to strict hygiene and cleanli- ness requirements. It granulates up to 35 kg material per hour and releases almost no particles (<1.0 µm) due to its integrated extraction system as well as optimised sealing technology. The GRS 180 is visually striking with its low- height design and a total height of only 1,050 mm. It is therefore ideally suited to the space-saving positioning below drop chutes, separating drums or large injection moulding machines. As stan- dard, it features an extremely flat spe- cial hopper with automatic dual slide valve for feeding of sprues and scraps without splash back. This gateway function can be adapted to three dif- ferent cycle versions by means of a tog- gle key and an integrated easy control. The GRS 180 can also be loaded with sprue pickers from the Getecha range. The RS 2404 B, which Getecha showed at its K trade fair stand, is adapted to use in blow moulding technology and designed for an hourly throughput of up to 160 kg. Managing Director Burkhard Vogel explains the most re- cent optimisationsmade to this hopper granulator on the occasion of different customer projects: “On request of the users, this granulator received a strong 7.5 KW drive, an open triangular rotor permeable to air with 3 x 2 rotor blades in offset arrangement and a super tan- gential housing feed. This way, it is ide- ally equipped for the granulation of large-volume blow-moulded parts like for example 5 litre bottles.” Further- more, fans integrated into the hopper of this RS 2404 B cause an additional air flow in the grinding chamber and make sure that the spray arresters re- main tightly closed, so that no ground material can splash back. The largest exhibit was the power- ful central granulator RS 45090. It is designed for an hourly throughput of up to 900 kg and has a granulator housing with highly effective sound insulation. Due to its drive reposi- tioned at the top and integrated into the housing, it is relatively compact despite its additional insulation, and only requires a small footprint. Gete- cha demonstrated in Düsseldorf how this granulator can be turned into a multi-tasking-capable granulation station by means of various bypass hoppers. Because on the one hand, there are infeed rollers at the rear of the granulator for pulling in entire sheets and blanking skeletons, on the other hand, users can also feed their faulty parts via the hopper. An important prerequisite for the high performance of this large cen- tral granulator is, in addition to the robust machine static, a powerful 5-blade rotor and the usage of two stator blades in the grinding chamber. The RS 45090 also sets standards with regard to maintenance: A hydraulic opening mechanism supports easy ac- cess to hopper and screen rocker, and an electrically monitored rotor locking provides highest safety during routine blade replacements. Also striking at the K trade fair stand of Getecha was the equally sound- insulated infeed granulator RS 3004-E. The technical highlight of this machine, which was developed for usage in film and plate extrusion, is the torque-con- trolled double infeed system. It enables offcuts and edge trims of varying thick- ness to be fed in at different speeds. A mechanical floating roller control system with dancer arm provided this function for many years, synchronis- ing the speed of the edge trim feed with the speed of the film system and controlling the tensile load of the edge trims. However, as the edge trim gran- ulators are now often to be installed directly next to the extrusion system, where the footprint is often very lim- ited, Getecha developed a new, more compact system: Here, the maximum torque of the feeding drive is set via the frequency converter, and the trac- tion and infeed speed working on the edge trims are finely tuned. Getecha GmbH www.getecha.de The Getecha stand in hall 9 at K 2019 (Photos: VMVerlag)