DUSSELDORF, GERMANY -- Bühler Holding AG, headquartered in Braunschweig, Germany, is promoting its work with ITW Poly Recycling GmbH, a partnership that set out to develop a bespoke integrated optical sorting station based on its Sortex technology.
ITW's facility in Weinfelden, Switzerland, specializes in PET processing, supplying food grade and non-food grade recycled PET products to clients in Switzerland and across Europe. The company was looking to improve both the efficiency of its operation and the quality of its end product.
Alex Prömer, Bühler's business development manager, said: "ITW Poly Recycling recognized the importance of improving efficiency and further increasing the quality of PET flake sort and the potential benefits of materials sorting capabilities – particularly in overcoming the issue of PVC contamination from labels in the case of PET bottles."
ITW's PET recycled output contained up to 20 percent of out of specification material within the processed product. The company's aim was to increase the quality the processing line by reducing this figure to almost zero.
The partnership, which proved highly successful, is part of drive by Bühler to promote itself as an "all from one supplier" operation, according to Faisal Baig, the company's global product manager for optical sorting.
"We can supply customers with everything they need – there's no longer any need to a worry about integration issues. If you take one of our systems everything marries up and customers also have a single point of call."
"Our aim is to make Sortex to optical sorting what Hoover is to vacuum cleaners. And we're getting there," Baig claimed.