Successful Premiere of PET Briquettes
No-one at Repasack is prepared to part with their Hsm brp 4810 briquetting press.
The machine presses twice as fast as its predecessor, compresses the material to a thirtieth of its initial volume and so far it has not had any operational faults. At the large counting centre for disposable packaging made from PET, aluminium and tin there was a positive summary regarding the first new HSM briquetting press. Despite some difficulties that had had to be overcome along the way.
Employees often like to choose their own way of doing things - and in this case it’s for the better: after the Hsm brp 4810 had been set up for testing in the counting centre in Oberhausen, the employees would only have used the new machine, although the old one could have been used in parallel, reported Uwe Lauf, the operations manager in the Repasack counting centre in Oberhausen. The reasons for the employees’ quick switch were obvious. The new press works twice as fast as its predecessor and it compresses with much more power. “This machine works very well and very reliably”, concludes the operations manager after nine months, taking stock of the performance of the HSM press for PET bottles and cans for the first time.
The demand for a press for the drinks industry is therefore extremely high: PET is a very abrasive substance, which can wear machines down badly. Thicker, premium quality types of sheet metal and steel are therefore a must-have - which is why the developers were delighted that HSM installs particularly wear-resistant steels as standard. PET can, moreover, be rather stubborn: an additional guide plate must be installed, because PET bottles manage to force themselves again and again between the plates and then pop up in places where they don’t belong. This must not happen, because pressing bottles and cans properly is practically a legal obligation for the machine, since disposable packaging is only regarded as disposed when it has been properly destroyed. A quality criterion, for which the counting centre must be certified once a year by the German Deposit Association.
A further advantage of the HSM machine for the officials at Repasack is its ease of maintenance. The third stage of compression, the main stage of pressing, and therefore the part during which the most wear and tear occurs, is now completely replaceable. This third stage, according to Uwe Lauf, also distinguishes the HSM machine from the products of other manufacturers, which operate in two stages. The results of HSM’s extra power: the machine spits out PET briquettes with a density of up to 400 kg/m³ and tin can briquettes of up to 760 kg/m³.
Customer quote: “After six months the machine has already paid off. It works more quickly and presses to a greater density. And all this while being extremly reliable.”
Uwe Lauf, Operations Manager, Repasack GmbH, Oberhausen
The facts
Company
Repasack is a subsidiary of Interseroh, an environmental services provider active throughout Europe. On the Oberhausen site Repasack runs one of the largest counting centres for PET bottles and cans in Germany.
Task
Repasack was looking for a briquetting press for PET, aluminium and tin; it had to be durable, efficient, reliable and above all easy to maintain. The machine should also to be able to handle the demanding PET press material.
Solution
HSM has developed the new BRP 4810 briquetting press in cooperation with Repasack. The machine can withstand abrasive PET material, it presses quickly and to a high density.
Advantages
• The briquettes are small and dense and do not need to be packaged
• Lower transport costs
• A continuous output is possible
• PET and cans can be pressed by one machine
• The drive unit is installed in a separate power pack
• Unique threefold compression produces a PET briquette density of up to 400 kg/m³
• The third stage of briquetting is completely interchangeable
• High level of operational safety
