PROBLEM
Plastic Recycling Company is a “spin off” from a successful parent company. Well managed and innovative, the company is on the verge of accelerated growth provided it can increase production while controlling labor costs. Presently, they are using band-saws to reduce purge materials, and they are hand-feeding granulators to produce a regrind product. In plant materials flow is cumbersome and counterproductive. Sales & marketing efforts have positioned the company to exploit various opportunities in scrap plastic materials, provided the company can meet the production demands of the potential increase in the materials base. Present size reduction equipment is undersized, overused, and in need of replacement. They need a pre-shredder, metal separation equipment, a larger granulator, and fines separation capabilities. All would help distance the company from the competition. The overall objective would be to achieve a significant increase in production throughput, and minimize labor requirements.

SOLUTION
Recommended solution includes: purchasing a heavy-duty “preshredder” to be positioned prior to the existing granulator. New equipment would include a single shaft shredder, designed to accommodate large purge materials, bulky rejects, and dunnage trays without pre-cutting. Shredder would have a large in-feed opening capable of “dump and run” loading. Loading would be achieved with a “fork lift” dumping directly into the shredder, a box tipper, and an auxiliary conveyor would be utilized for sorting capabilities. Complete system would achieve metal separation by utilizing a self-cleaning magnet, suspended above a conveyor feeding the granulator, and a magnet head pulley installed at the discharge end of the same conveyor. A fines aspirator, positioned within the granulator pneumatic evacuation system, will separate the fines from the accepts, and will complete the new capabilities and improvements.

ACTION
Prospective customer decided to proceed with the solution offered, and issued a purchase order to IMPACT GRINDERS for the proposed shredder, the discharge conveyor, and the metal separation equipment.

RESULTS
A new single shaft “pre-shredder.” with a discharge conveyor, and metal separation equipment, was delivered to the customer and installed by in-plant maintenance personnel. Installation supervision and operator training was provided by IMPACT GRINDERS. The company has been able to contract for larger volumes of scrap materials. They are currently doing business with companies previously un-reachable. The increase in business has created the need for an additional line of high performance size reduction equipment, which was supplied by IMPACT GRINDERS and recently installed in a plant addition. The new system has once again significantly increased the capabilities of the this re-grind facility. This company continues to be well managed, it is profitable, it is very successful, and it is a highly respected Plastic Recycling company.

THE A. L. ANDERSEN COMPANIES, INC.
P.O. Box 26, Waunaukee, WI 53597
608-849-7400     Fax 608-849-8142
ala@alandersencompanies.com