Replas-M

Once the bales (bottles compacted into a bundle) of PET have been received the process of turning them back into raw material can begin. Bottles are sorted by color, and foreign matters/materials are then separated manually from the bottles. Post-consumer PET is often sorted into different color fractions: transparent or uncolored PET, blue and green colored PET, and the remainder into a mixed colors fraction. Before cutting the bottles into flakes a metal detector is used to find and remove any metal material that might be in the bottles. Even the smallest shard of metal has the capacity to damage the cutting systems beyond repair. The bottles are then cut (shredded) by the granulation system. By adding water, the prewashing can also be incorporated into this stage.

A feeding auger will then transport the material into a pre-separation sink-float tank where the floating and sinking material is separated. An extra treatment unit will prepare any PET flakes for the feeding tank that have remained contaminated from the initial sink-float process. The material is then dosed (in preset quantities via a feeding auger) into a turbo washer, in which the wash cycles are set according to the amount of foreign material left on the shredded flakes. A dosing tank receives the batch of flakes coming from the turbo washer and are put into a pre-separation sink/float tank where again a sink/float process will occur. In the Hydro-cyclone and the double dewatering unit the heavy sinking parts are again separated. A vertical centrifuge will then dry the flakes, which are then transported into a blowing unit that fills them into big bags.