Discovery Day 2023, Erema’s open house event, which the company hosted at its headquarters in Ansfelden, Austria on 1 June, was this year attended by a crowd of around 400 customers and partners, mainly from Europe, who came both to learn about the latest Erema technologies - and to celebrate the company’s 40th anniversary.
The annual event, which this year included a gala evening on the night before and a presentation programme the next day, not only marked the company’s anniversary milestone, but also inaugurated its brand new R&D centre. The company has built on two halls with a total area of 1,550 square metres and a new office building offering space for 50 workplaces has been built.
The presentation programme focussed this year on the wide range of recycling technologies developed by Erema to handle polyolefin and PET plastic waste. These included, amongst others, the company’s textile recycling technology, Refresher deoderisation technology, its new laser filter size and the new EcoGentle plasticising technology for PET recycling - Erema’s answer to the ‘demand for rising throughputs and low energy consumption’, said Sophie Pachner, R&D manager Process Engineering.
EcoGentle plasticising technology, achieved through the changes in the screw design, adjustment of compression ratios for better solids handling behaviour, the targeted utilisation of shear flows in combination with elongation flows, and a number of other process and rheological optimisations, increases both the melting performance and the dispersive and distributive mixing capacity in the plasticising unit. The result is particularly gentle plasticising at a lower temperature, combined with high melt homogeneity and a wide process window for more stable operation. The much lower melt temperature has a positive effect on the quality of the melt and the quality of the final rPET pellets.
