Icma San Giorgio SpA hosted a successful open house together with Italy's Filtec Sas and Germany's Ettlinger at its offices in San Giorgio su Legnano, near Milan, on February 19-20, 2013. The three companies play a leading role in their respective fields: recycling-compounding, filtration systems and cutting devices. The event was dedicated to the advanced recycling of heterogeneous plastic scrap.
Leading technical publications were also in attendance at the company's headquarters in San Giorgio su Legnano, near Milan, along with 70 selected guests from all over the world. This impressive participation confirmed that there is great interest in recycling technology and gave ICMA SAN GIORGIO the chance to illustrate the important technological developments available today on its co-rotating twin screw extruders, and its turnkey lines for recycling applications, in which the Milan-based company specializes and for which it is renowned around the world.
"Extruders dedicated to the recycling sector are an example of the technological excellence we are very proud of and bears witness to my company's commitment to studying and creating enabling technology for a sustainable economy," said Giorgio Colombo, CEO of ICMA SAN GIORGIO.
Three innovative systems presented which, when working in combination, recycle heterogeneous waste, give positive result on same number of key factors: innovation, profitability, differentiation. Two live demonstrations were given during the open house on a line based on Icma San Giorgio's co-rotating twin-screw extruder, which is technologically state-of-the-art and optimized for advanced recycling.
The first demonstration involved the processing of heterogeneous packaging waste, including primarily polyolefins, but also containing barrier film, metalized film, printed film and so on. Normally, this type of waste cannot be recycled just as it is or it is used to make low cost products, such as low-pressure mouldings. The extruder used, on the other hand, gives the product a higher characteristics allowing the use of the material in more sophisticated applications, obtaining an added value product.
The second demonstration also offered an almost advanced example of recycling, namely the recover of ground but not washed car bumpers. These components are made by polypropylene, modified with thermoplastic rubber to increase the elastic modulus and with mineral fillers to boost sturdiness.
All the above was possible thanks to the unique mixing performance achievable only with ICMA twin-screw co-rotating technology. Another important aspect is the extreme efficiency of the degassing system that is much more performing than other technological solutions; this behavior permits maximum extraction of the volatile substances, normally at high content in a matrix of this kind. The co-rotating technology also offers the exclusive opportunity of filling or reinforcing the polymer, to obtain (although this aspect was not part of the demonstration) an even more attractive produce in terms of profitability.
A continuous, latest generation ERF screen-changer developed by Ettlinger is installed downstream the extruder. The device is fully automatic and reaches extremely high filtration performance levels, to the order of 150 micron, even with a very high percentage of pollutants and without requiring the constant presence of an operator. Further downstream, the line will have an underwater pelletiser, specifically tuned by Filtec for this process. The underwater technology allows the immediate cooling of the material, thus guaranteeing highly precise and consistent cutting even with highly complex materials.
The event location was ICMA San Giorgio Spa's location in Via Madonnina, 75 - 20010 SAN GIORGIO SU LEGNANO (Milano - Italia)
The program was as follows:
- 10.00 a.m. - Registration
- 10.30 a.m. - Welcome speech (G. Colombo, Icma San Giorgio)
- 10.40 a.m. - Advantages of co-rotating twin-screw extruders for advanced recycling plants (C. Moneta, Icma San Giorgio)
- 11.00 a.m. - Continuous melt filters ERF, high technology in filtration (I. Talenti, Ettlinger)
- 11.20 a.m. - High quality in pelletizing for recycled materials (M.E. Veronese, Filtec)
- 11.40 a.m. - Demo: recycling of post-consumer waste from bumpers
- 12.30 p.m. - Lunch
- 2.00 p.m. - Demo: recycling of post-consumer packaging film waste
- 3.00 p.m. - B2B meetings
About ICMA San Giorgio SpA
ICMA SAN GIORGIO SPA is an Italian company belonging to a family-owned group with over 100 years industrial heritage in the mechanical and metallurgical industry. With over 40 years of experience in the production of plastic processing machinery, Icma is today one of the leading suppliers of co-rotating twin-screw extruders and turnkey systems for the compounding industry, sheet & foil extrusion equipment and all kind of special plants where the co-rotating technology can offer a competitive advantage.
For more information: Contact Laura Zoia at sales [at] icmasg.it +39 0331 407004.
