Granulators

What are plastic granulators?

• In its simplest terms, plastic granulators are large, industrial machines with powerful rotary systems designed to chop and grind scrap material (plastic) into manageable pieces of raw material called flakes or regrinds. In waste management and recycling, granulator machines are an integral piece of equipment to process plastic for recycling. It’s this finely ground raw material that is taken away and processed into ‘new’ plastics. Granulators can be classified into two of the following categories:

  “Beside-the-press” Granulators – used to grind relatively small volumes of waste material and used for immediate recycling of waste material and used for immediate recyling into the processing of plastics. These granulators are generally used in injection and blow moulding processses to grind trim waste, runners and sprues. The granules are then returned into the production process automatically. The machines can also be used for inline recycling plants as well. Options include custom hopper design & sizes, infeed and outfeed including conveyors and blower cyclone extraction systems.

• “Central and Heavy duty granulators” – typically larger in size, more powerful and intended to size-reduce greater volumes of scrap from various processing lines. There is a range of sizes available offering a high quality regrind with minimal fines. They can be used in all kinds of recycling applications either as a stand-alon, single pass size reduction machine or after a shredder in an inline recycling plant to increasethroughout and size reduction results.

  Contact our waste management specialists and we can provide an industrial granulator or central granulator that can be tailored specifically to meet your onsite requirements as well as your handling and loading expectations.

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• How do Granulators work?

  Compared to shredders, plastic granulators operate with intensely high rotor speeds, the standard ranging from 400-500rpm and offer a relatively low torque. They primarily operate by cutting/slicing the material with internal rotor blades that take repeated small ‘bites’ to create a uniformed end product. Although many granulators work the same way, different varieties in their ‘refining’ process can subtly affect your regrind product’s end result. Granulators also differ in that they don’t have a minimum throughput.

  An industrial granulator can handle thousands of plastic scraps with differently sized machines to process different materials. When it comes to cutting power, these industrial machines depend on high-horsepower motors, plus heavy flywheels to effectively dice through scrap at a consecutive, even pace. The only principle limitation experienced with granulators is that its feed opening’s specific size and shape can affect scrap capacity. Oversized waste scrap that hasn’t been adequately minimised through a shredder can get wedged in the feed opening and slow down production.

• Granulator machines for your business

  Avoiding plastic waste in this day and age is next to impossible. It comes in many forms, from plastic utensils, toys, household decorations, furniture to food packaging. If said plastic isn’t destroyed or recycled correctly, it can damage environmental effects and keep the market from creating synthetic plastics high. This is why a plastic granulator is an auxiliary piece of equipment for plastic processing facilities and any business involved in effective waste management.

  While the brute force of a shredder can significantly reduce waste production, businesses require the precision and finesse of a granulator machine to turn scrap material into manageable fragments for proper plastic recycling. Often, the following two devices complement each other. Our shredder machines will perform coarse size reduction. The scrap produced from the shredder can be then fed through a granulator to turn into sizable, more consistent regrind that can then go back into plastic production.

  At Waste Initiatives, we can provide your business with various rental granulator machines and assess your situation to determine the best machine for your particular processing requirements.

  Contact one of our friendly team members for more information about a specific granulator.