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Air-Pelletizer Increases Reusability % Back to Bag Production




The air-cooled pelletizing recycling machine Repro-Air has proven to be a big cost-saver for two of the largest bag producers located in Solo, Indonesia – Cahaya Kharisma and Djerapah Plastindo. According to the well-known HD and LDPE bag producers, the air-pelletizing technology is even better than water-cooled recycling machines for some applications.

 

Recycling without water

Having clean and fresh water supply could be an issue for some producers in Indonesia and creates the following two problems:

 

(1) The recycled pellets are “contaminated” by the water and therefore affect the product quality when used back again in film and bag production.

 

(2) The water could easily clog the filters of the water circulation systems and affect the production stability. It also disturbs the cooling effect for larger-sized recycling machines using water cooling.

 
 
Right next to your blown film and bag making machines
 

 
 

The Repro-Air model was designed to solve the above issues by using the air-pelletizing technology. The entire process - from material feeding, extrusion to pelletizing is completely water-free. Not only does this solve the water contamination problem (to the recycled pellets), but also saves a significant amount of water consumption to reduce overall operation cost.

Both of the Solo-based bag producers have already installed more than one Repro-Air machines after having witnessed the benefits and cost saving of the first installation.

 

Higher reusability back to production lines

When sharing their feedback on using the Repro-Air, the 2,000 tones/month producer told us the key benefit is that they can now use more recycled pellets back to the blown film machines.

 

“Before we were using, for example, 9% (in-house) recycled material to produce the film quality that we needed to produce. After switching to recycling with the air pelletizing machine, we can now use 15% - 18% recycled material to produce the exact same film quality,” said Mr. Henrix, production director of the Indonesian producer who now has 5 production facilities in Solo. “This was not possible before with other recycling machines, and we are able to reduce cost because less virgin material is used.”

 

Cahaya Kharisma now recycles HDPE film in the form of both film-on-roll (defected rolls) with automatic feeding and bag punch-off (manually) with the Repro-Air. The recycled pellets produced are 100% dry without any moisture on the surface and therefore, can be reused again immediately back into the blown film machines while the pellets are still hot.

 

“We don’t have to worry about the water moisture on the pellets surface that normally come from water-cooled based recycling machine, mentioned Mr. Hendrix, “the pellets are also less contaminated because there’s no water contact throughout the entire recycling process.”

 

Speaking about the benefits from a marketing perspective, he emphasized that “the main advantage is even if we use the same percentage of recycled material, we are able to produce better film quality without increasing the cost of material,” Mr. Hendrix added, “this gives us a competitive advantage in the market and our customers are happier when we offer better-quality bags at the same price.

 

Space saving. Simple installation. Anywhere in your factory

The Repro-Air has a very compact design. This small pelletizing machine can fit right next the production lines such as bag making and blown film machines. It does not need a separate room/space to place a larger recycling machine and therefore, making the addition of this recycling machine very simple and fast.

 

The Repro-Air is not disassembled for shipment, it can be quickly self-installed upon machine arrival (plug-and-run). This energy saving machine requires only 22kw power consumption and operates without water.
 

Video of the Repro-Air :
 

Suitable for producers of all sizes. Small yet useful

Although the output capacity is only 40-50 kg/hr for the Repro-Air line, it is still extremely useful even for large-scaled film and bag producers. For companies that have several factory locations or large factory areas, the Repro-Air can be placed in one of the factories or a specific factory area focused on recycling only one type of product.

 

“We run only one type of material on this line at a time: Un-printed, transparent LDPE film on roll, and we run it 24/7 without mixing it with any other materials with colors or printing. This way we do not waste any material and do not need to change the machine settings,” explained the factory manager of the Solo-based producer who is always looking to increase efficiency and reduce production cost. “For more complicated materials in different shapes like printed PP, powder and others, we collect them and run it on the bigger machines Repro-Flex 120.

 

The air-pelletizing recycling machine works well with LDPE and LLDPE, especially in the form of film-on-roll waste. HDPE punch waste and cut-off waste can also be fed manually into the machine directly.
 
 

Out of the 479 Repro-Air machines that Polystar has installed worldwide, about 50% are for producers ranging from 100-300 tons/month, 35% are for 300-700 tons/month, and 15% are for producers over 1,000 tons/month who use the combination of Repro-Air and Repro-Flex. In the case of the Indonesia-based film producer, a combination of two Repro-Air, one Repro-Flex 120 and one Repro-Flex 85 are used, installed in different factories dedicated to reprocess different types of materials.
 

Fast delivery. Faster return on investment

The delivery time of the Repro-Air is only 30 days upon order confirmation, thanks to the highly standardized design. On average, the return on investment is only 6 – 10 months, proving that post-industrial recycling can be extremely cost-effective when done correctly.
 

    

   Videos and machine details:


      Videos of Repro-Air processing different materials:
      1. HDPE
      2. LDPE

      Product page – Repro-Air

      More about Repro-Flex installations in Indonesia ( for higher capacity machines):                                 .  https://www.polystarco.com/en/news_i_N2017033100002.html
 

 

 

 

 

  More information on POLYSTAR’s Machinery
https://www.polystarco.com/en/products.html

POLYSTAR on PRM-TAIWAN
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