A melt filter entering the U.S. market targets highly contaminated streams and can help processors cut costs.
The ERA filter from Italian equipment manufacturer FIMIC produces high-quality output with efficiency, removing fiber, metals, rubber, wood and other contaminants from post-consumer and post-industrial plastics streams.
FIMIC designed the ERA to handle the “increase of more heavily contaminated material on the market,” the company said in a release. The equipment was part of the Association of Plastic Recyclers’ Plastics Recycling Showcase this year.
“It provides fine filtration for highly contaminated plastic and is especially suited for blown film, high-quality sheet and similar applications using recycled plastic that requires a clean melt,” FIMIC noted in a description.
ERA incorporates a few twists on the standard equipment design. For instance, the FIMIC system notably doesn’t employ a pre-filtering process, and can sometimes be used without even putting the input stream through a wash process.
The new model has two filters, two melt chambers and two discharge points. The multiple melt chambers allows for a two-step filtration process: Large contaminants are captured by a punch screen in the first chamber, and a laser-drilled filter weeds out smaller particles in the second chamber.
The system is also billed as a cost-saving measure, preventing damage to the fine filtration device, which can be a laser screen. The system is available with a 100-micron laser filter.
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