Rapid Granulator slows down to improve performance

Düsseldorf, Germany — Rapid Granulator AB is slowing down.

And that's the way the Bredaryd, Sweden-based recycling equipment maker likes it.

At least for its new Rapid OneCUT Pro granulater.

Rapid Granulator said slowing down the granulation speed from a standard 25 revolutions per minute to a range starting as low as 15 revolutions per minute provides advantages including creation of less dust.

The company's Rapid OneCUT PRO, which a "bandwidth" of 15 to 35 RPMs, also creates less noise and uses less energy.

"We had been working with slower speeds for many years. That has not been a priority for us," CEO Bengt Rimark said on the floor at K 2019 in Düsseldorf.

But that all changed about a year and a half ago when the company started to question the status quo when it came to the slower speed approach.

For a long time, slow-speed granulation meant processing material at 25 revolutions per minute, no questions asked. "That stock answer of we've always done it that way needed to be questioned," said Jim Hoffman, vice president of sales and marketing for Rapid Granulator Inc., the company's U.S. subsidiary located near Pittsburgh.

"The slow speed was great for certain materials. It's great to have in your portfolio," Rimark said. But the application was limited with only one speed.

"Some people liked the concept. How can we make it more versatile? If we change the speed, we can actually cover a wider range of materials?" the CEO said.

So that's exactly what Rapid Granulator did.

Providing a range of slow speed granulation through a single machine allows for different materials to be handled, saves energy and lowers noise, the company said.

Cutting speed by 40 percent, from 25 to 15 RPM, for example, will cut energy consumption by 30 percent, the company said.

Jacking up the RPMs from 25 to 35 RPMs, meanwhile, will increase capacity by 30 to 40 percent, the company said.

The OneCUT PRO also is implementing what the company calls EnergySmart, a new approach that can cut energy use by approximately 80 percent.

EnergySmart enables a machinery operator to stop the machine while accumulating materials instead of having the machine continue to run.

A Rapid Stop & Go mode allows the granulator to, well, stop and then go in intervals allowing no energy use when the equipment is not running.

The OneCUT PRO line also is introducing what the company calls a Quick Rotor Release system that allows for a quick release of the machine's gearbox from the rotor. This detachment frees up the rotor for easy cleaning, service and maintenance compared with models that stay connected to the gearbox, Rapid Granulator said.

Rapid Granulator also showed off its line of ThermoPRO machinery during K, Oct. 16-23, described as "a new range of granulators specifically designed for in-line processing of skeletal waste from sheet and film thermoforming lines."

With an increasing focus on plastics pollution and creating circular economies, the position of Rapid Granulator is stronger than ever, the CEO said.

Manufacturers, particularly in automotive, used to try to hide the fact that they used recycled plastics in their parts. But now that practice has become a competitive advantage for companies in the consumers' eyes,

"It's fantastic to be a plastics recycling company because we are not part of the problem," Rimark said. "We are part of the solution. We have seen an incredible change of mind in the industry."

Companies are no longer simply requesting the use of recycled plastic in parts, they are now demanding their inclusion. And that only strengthens the market for Rapid Granulator, he said. "For us, it's fantastic to be in that process."