After a fire completely destroyed Aurora Kunststoffe’s production area in 2017, the company was re-outfitted with, among others, three Coperion ZSK 45 Mc18 twin screw extruders.
The recompounder, headquartered in Neuenstein, Germany and since end of 2019 member of MOL Group, also took advantage of the opportunity to expand its production hall - and was back in business by 2019.
Aurora Kunststoffe specialises in the recycling of production waste from the manufacture of technical plastic parts. A rejection rate of around 5% is typical for these parts, said the company.
The recompounding company purchases the waste and collects it: Aurora has its own fleet of about 60 semi-trailers and has developed a box concept for single-origin collection. After sorting and grinding, the company starts the recompounding operations. The main resins processed by the company on the ZSK extruders are PA6, PA66, PA11, PA12, POM, PP, PC, and PC-ABS.
Coperion custom-designed each of these three ZSK 45 extruders for Aurora Kunststoffe to ensure these fully met the company’s specific requirements. All three feature ZS-EG twin screw side devolatilization units and special wear protection for product-contact parts. The plastic strands emerging from the die head enter semiautomatic SCP 200 strand conveying systems from Coperion Pelletizing Technology and are conveyed to the strand pelletizer’s feed mechanism, where these are cut into pellets.
With this process, Aurora Kunststoffe achieves throughputs of up to 650 kg/h, producing over 50 tons of compounds per day. The result: high-quality raw materials that are used in the automotive, construction, furniture and electronics industries, said Aurora.
For the future, Aurora anticipates increasing demand. In Germany, the share of recyclate used in plastics processing in 2017 was just over 12%.
“I am certain that sooner or later, there will be a legally mandated recycling quota”, said Alexander Schweinle, head of production at Aurora Kunststoffe.
Extrusion manufacturer Coperion would agree: “We’re convinced that becoming circular is unavoidable for the plastics industry,” said Jochen Schofer, Business Segment Manager, Recycling & Direct Extrusion.