Baler and recycling engineering firm Middleton Engineering has installed a new swan neck conveyor at Biffa Polymers’ Wilton International Petrochemical Complex in Redcar, UK.
Biffa is an integrated waste management business that is into bottles and material recycling, among others.
Middleton's new machine has been installed as part of Biffa's food grade high density polyethylene (HDPE) bottle recycling.
Capable of operating round-the-clock at the milk bottle unit for processing post-consumer plastics, the machine could be fed with material up to two tons an hour or 50 tons a day.
The materials are rushed in through an electronic sorting unit that removes unwanted substance and lets the clean HDPE waste stream pass into the granulator.
The resultant material is then subjected to heat and extruded. It is carved into pellets and supplied to market for use in making new dairy bottles and other items.
Biffa Polymers engineering and maintenance manager Martin Brass said: "We visited a number of Middleton customer sites before selecting the company to design and install the new conveyor.
"It's running well and the team reacted very promptly to initial issues with the rubber belt untracking, making permanent design modifications following our input.
"The plant is up and running following an earlier major refit and we continue to lead the market in closing the loop on post-consumer plastics recycling."
According to Middleton, the machine was designed taking into consideration the size of vertical rubber flights to ensure delivery of material at the desired speed and volume.
Biffa wanted a constant feed, prevention of spillage of materials and easing of overloading and jamming at the conveyer's foot.
Middleton will also supply a second conveyor for a new milk bottle bale breaking system.
Bales of plastic bottles could then be broken open by the machine and sent through a vent into the new belt conveyor, inclined at 31 degree to feed downstream processing.
