Sustainable handling of natural resources is a global task, something that needs to be addressed now and not just in the future. This relates in particular to the further development of the circular economy for post-consumer or post-production waste. For this reason, the recyclability of PET products made by the manmade fiber industry is attributed special significance. Modern resource-friendly packaging would not be conceivable without manmade PET fibers and commodities generally made from chemicals, such as beverage bottles, cleaning materials, etc. As a raw material that is – along with polyolefins and polyamide – such a dominant raw material, it is essential that polyester is also recycled.
Viscosity and Homogeneity are Under Control with VacuFil
Manmade fibers and filaments made from recycled bottle flake material require corresponding single-variety collection or pre-sorting of the bottle material being recycled and comprehensive cleaning before they are shredded into polyester flakes.
For numerous textile applications, parameters such as viscosity and homogeneity are crucial and must be subject to virtually no fluctuations. In other words, to enable recycled polyester to be used here in the first place necessitates its pretreatment. And this is carried out by the VacuFil recycling process, a BB Engineering GmbH development. The VacuFil enables the manufacture of extremely homogeneous, viscosity-stable rPET melt and hence a precisely definable and reproducible raw material for downstream processes (i.e. spinning plant). As a manufacturer of components and systems for producing manmade fibers, BB Engineering (BBE) is familiar with the dire impact that even the smallest viscosity deviation has on the spinning plant process. With the VacuFil, the company has succeeded, depending on the intended end application, in aligning the melt with the process in a targeted manner. Macroand microscopic melt homogeneity is achieved by means of homogenization drying, controlled plasticizing, gentle filtration and controlled vacuum degassing.
In the downstream processes, the melt can either be first granulated or fed directly into the end product’s manufacturing process. Recycled polyester, produced using the BBE VacuFil process, can even be used for more challenging downstream processes, including the manufacture of FDY filaments, for example. Here the material is subjected to extreme loads throughout the entire manufacturing process. In the FDY single-stage process, the filaments are drawn and taken up at speeds of up to 4,500 m/min.
BBE German Engineering
BBE is headquartered in Remscheid/Germany and is a joint venture between Brückner Group GmbH, the world market leader for machines for the polyester foil industry and Oerlikon Textile GmbH & Co. KG, the world market leader for systems. “Our decades of competence kicked in while we were developing the VacuFil. What Oerlikon Barmag brings to the table as a technological leader in the field of filament yarn spinning systems, BBE complements with considerable knowhow in the area of extrusion and filtration and in systems construction and engineering!”, states Dr. Klaus Schäfer, CEO of BBE.
BBE is the exclusive supplier of extrusion filter technology for various manmade fiber industry polymers, particularly polyester, for its parent companies. As a result of its association with the Brückner and Oerlikon Textile groups, BBE is always aware of the requirements of the further-processing industry in terms of granulate and melt made from recycled polyester. It is also, and particularly, for this reason that the further development of postconsumer PET material and post-production PET material is of special interest to BBE’s parent companies and the reason for them bundling their recycling know-how to form the BB Engineering joint venture.
The development, construction and assembly of VacuFil and VarioFil units are carried out exclusively in Remscheid, very much in line with the company’s tried-and-tested ‘Made in Germany’ machine construction philosophy.
Recycling Process with VacuFil
The polyester recycled using the VacuFil has been successfully spun into POY and FDY. Various target viscosities and starting materials are not a problem for the VacuFil thanks to the innovative key component, the Visco+ vacuum filter. A reactor is not required. The VacuFil unites gentle large-scale filtration and swift intrinsic viscosity build-up for consistently-outstanding melt quality. The attached vacuum unit, which is automatically regulated between 1 and 30 mbar, removes volatile contamination, ensures a controlled IV increase and additionally achieves anideal melt homogeneity, which is vital for the downstream spinning performance. Comprising an inline viscosity measuring unit connected to the vacuum system, the IV can be continuously and reliably adjusted. Hence, producers are able to generate the specific kind of recycled polyester they require for their application. The excellent degasification performance additionally relieves energy-intensive pre-drying.
With their modular structure and a performance spectrum of between 300 kg/h and maximum 3,000 kg/h, VacuFil systems open up various possibilities for processing polyester waste. Bottle flakes, agglomerated spinning waste or a mixture of both can be processed into high-quality PET granulate or fed directly into downstream processes (i.e. the spinning plant). The entire recycling process is controlled and monitored by Oerlikon Barmag’s GUIDE system, guaranteeing the accustomed reliability. With an optional 3DD mixer, the market-proven mixing technology manufactured by BBE, producers can not only add additives to the melt, they can also easily change rPET ratios in the main melt from between 5 and 50 percent stream in order to comply with legal standards.
