Method of manufacturing pet nurdles

摘要

A method of recycling PET into PET nurdles, 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 18 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 PET nurdles. In various embodiments, the polymer melt is formed into PET nurdles using any suitable technique such as, for example, any suitable strand pelletizing or melt pelletizing techniques.

主权项

1. A method of manufacturing PET nurdles, said method comprising:
providing a PET crystallizer; passing a plurality of flakes of recycled PET through said PET crystallizer to at least partially dry a surface of said plurality of flakes of recycled PET; providing a multi-screw extruder that comprises:
(i) a first satellite screw extruder, said first satellite screw extruder comprising a first satellite screw that is mounted to rotate about a central axis of said first satellite screw;(ii) a second satellite screw extruder, said second satellite screw extruder comprising a second satellite screw that is mounted to rotate about a central axis of said second satellite screw, wherein said first satellite screw and said second satellite screw are disposed at least partially within respective extruder barrels;(iii) a satellite screw extruder support system that is adapted to rotate said first and second satellite screws about a main axis while said first and second satellite screws are rotating about their respective central axes, said main axis being substantially parallel to: (a) said central axis of said first satellite screw; and (b) said central axis of said second satellite screw; and(iv) a pressure regulation system that is adapted to maintain a pressure within said first and second satellite screw extruders below about 18 millibars; using said pressure regulation system to reduce a pressure within said first and second satellite screw extruders to below about 18 millibars; after passing said plurality of flakes of recycled PET through said crystallizer melting said plurality of flakes of recycled PET to form a polymer melt; while maintaining said pressure within said first and second satellite screw extruders below about 18 millibars, passing said polymer melt through said multi-screw extruder so that: (1) a first portion of said melt passes through said first satellite screw extruder, and (2) a second portion of said melt passes through said second satellite screw extruder; after said step of passing said melt of recycled polymer through said multi-screw extruder, pelletizing said polymer melt into a plurality of polymer nurdles.