Feb 26 2013
Raven Industries Engineered Films Division announces the installation of a new reclaim production line designed to capture and recycle excess polymer material from internal manufacturing processes.
New reclaim production line designed to capture and recycle excess polymer material from operations.
The new reclaim line is truly a state-of-the-art system, capable of producing up to 15 million pounds of reprocessed resin pellets annually. This unique design contains a specific line filtering system for the removal of foreign materials from the melt stream; allowing complete quality control of all materials produced. The integrated computer control interface monitors every aspect of the process from the introduction of material to the finished resin pellets produced.
Raven teamed up with leading consultants for the design and procurement of the new reclamation system, which involved extensive research and analysis of current industry recycling solutions. Raven elected to work with companies such as ADG Solutions and Davis Standard LLC due to their project expertise in reclaim automation systems. This collaboration proved to be highly instrumental in the selection of major line components from key equipment manufacturers.
"The installation of this advanced system achieves a closed-loop recycling stream for our manufacturing facility by reclaiming excess production material through a fully controlled process from start to finish," states Anthony Schmidt, vice president and general manager for Raven Industries Engineered Films Division. "Additionally, the reclaim line achieves a critical step in implementing actions directly aligned with Raven Industries' sustainability initiatives, by reducing product waste and municipal landfill consumption."
Excess polymer materials are generated during the normal production process through line startups and material edge trim processes. Past practices have included transporting this material to external reclaim facilities for reuse and discarding other non-reclaim materials. With this new system, the vast majority of excess material is captured and reclaimed through our facility to increase efficiency, meet environmental initiatives, and add direct value to our overall manufacturing process.