Washing and drying of post-consumer plastic material - Herbold Meckesheim

Around the Hydrocyclone, Herbold built a modular washing plant system that allows efficient cleaning of post-consumer plastic material from prewashing to thermal drying.

Plastic products at the end of their service life are often contaminated and mixed. The modular components from Herbold Meckesheim for washing, separating and drying in recycling plants are capable of processing these valuable resources in a quality that allows them to be reused even with food contact. The first of these is the multi-stage pre-washing unit VWE, which captures coarse impurities and reduces mineral fraction. Friction washers are used to dewater and clean the ground material, for example from films or rigid plastics. The hydrocyclone stage has a high separation effect and the friction generated in the treatment provides an additional washing effect; process water is furthermore freed from contaminants at a high throughput. Increased quality requirements for the removal of odors and adhesives can be met by hot washing to achieve an optimum cleaning result with precisely fitting temperatures and dwell times and by using appropriate additives. In mechanical drying, Herbold has transferred the principle of multi-stage vertical drying to horizontal machine solutions. The dryers can also be used as intensive washers. A two-stage thermal dryer completes the procedure to such an extent that the material can be further processed in an energy-saving manner thanks to very low residual moisture.