SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MANUFACTURING BULKED CONTINUOUS FILAMENT

摘要

A method of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament which, in various embodiments, comprises: (A) grinding recycled PET bottles into a group of flakes; (B) washing the flakes; (C) identifying and removing impurities, including impure flakes, from the group of flakes; (D) passing the group of flakes through an MRS extruder while maintaining the pressure within the MRS portion of the MRS extruder below about 5 millibars; (E) passing the resulting polymer melt through at least one filter having a micron rating of less than about 50 microns; and (F) forming the recycled polymer into bulked continuous carpet filament that consists essentially of recycled PET.

主权项

1. A method of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament, said method comprising:
(A) providing a multi-screw extruder that comprises:
a multi-screw extruder housing that defines at least six satellite screw barrels;at least six satellite screws each mounted within a respective one of said at least six satellite screw barrels and each mounted to rotate about a respective central axis of each of said at least six satellite screws; anda pressure regulation system that is adapted to maintain a pressure within each of said respective satellite screw barrels between about 0.5 millibars and about 5 millibars; (B) using said pressure regulation system to reduce a pressure within said at least six satellite screw barrels to between about 0.5 millibars and about 5 millibars; (C) while maintaining said pressure within said at least six satellite screw barrels between about 0.5 millibars and about 5 millibars, passing a melt comprising recycled polymer through said multi-screw extruder so that at least a portion of said melt is fed through each of said at least six satellite screws; and (D) after said step of passing said melt of recycled polymer through said multi-screw extruder, forming said recycled polymer into bulked continuous carpet filament.