Circularity will take center stage at the K show this October, and Coperion and Herbold —which is part of Coperion’s recycling business unit — are teaming up to show off their recycling capabilities.
In the Recycling Pavilion at the K show, a Herbold Hydrocyclone will work in coordination with a Coperion ZSK FilCo filtration compounder. Featuring a density-separation system, the Hydrocyclone uses centrifugal forces and turbowasher technology to accurately separate and purify plastic materials. Using cyclone technology and high-turbulence washing, it can separate residual contaminants such as sand, glass and metals; a friction washer can remove paper and other fiber contaminants.
Meanwhile, the Coperion ZSK FilCo recycling extruder system, featured at NPE2024, allows filtration and compounding in a single step. Waste plastic is fed gravimetrically into a Coperion ZSK twin-screw extruder to be melted, homogenized and devolatilized, then fed through an integrated filter to remove contaminants before it moves back into the same ZSK extruder to be compounded with reinforcing materials or fillers.
The system takes up less floor space than the traditional two-extruder configuration, reduces energy consumption and emissions by more than 50 percent, and achieves a higher product quality and faster production. Working alongside the Hydrocyclone, it offers a streamlined system for post-consumer recyclate (PCR) and highly contaminated polymer reprocessing.
Herbold and Coperion say the combination of the Herbold Hydrocyclone and Coperion ZSK FilCo filtration compounder offers very high levels of purity and efficiency.
Karen Hanna | Senior Staff Reporter
Senior Staff Reporter Karen Hanna covers injection molding, molds and tooling, processors, workforce and other topics, and writes features including In Other Words and Problem Solved for Plastics Machinery & Manufacturing, Plastics Recycling and The Journal of Blow Molding. She has more than 15 years of experience in daily and magazine journalism.
