Overview
We all are familiar with the plastic containers, plastic bottles, plastic toys, etc. that comes in different colors & properties. Have you ever wondered how to plastic products get their color?
Well the answer to that is Masterbatch. Masterbatch is additive that is used for coloring plastic or applying other vivid properties to plastic. Additives can be in solid(powder) or liquid form.
Masterbatch is highly concentrated mixture pigment or dyes constituted in plastic resins.
Pigments or dyes are blended into plastic resins & then they are feed into Extruder. Extruder melts the resins & spreads to create paste. Paste is then cooled in & cut into small pellets. Pellets are than screened & graded to get uniform sized granules. These masterbatches is then used to make various plastic products such as bath tumbler, water buckets, shampoo & medicine bottles, plastic containers & jars of different colors.
For instance, to make a red masterbatch red powdery pigment would be blended with clear resins.
Below image would help you to understand how masterbatch is formed.
Challenge
Manufacturer meet our technical expert in one exhibition & briefed the issues they were facing while screening & grading (colored pellets) color masterbatch with competitor made round vibro separator.
From the discussion the challenges concluded was of Inefficient & inaccurate grading/screening.
After cooling down & cutting the paste into pellets (masterbatch) screening & grading is required to get uniform sized granules.
During the cutting down of paste not all the granules are of consistent size; so, gradation becomes compulsory. Apart from that dust & powder is also carried away with granules; so, screening is required.
Due to less area for grading & less travel time over the screen efficient grading & sieving was not achieved with competitor made round separator.
Also, the round vibro separator was having single coarse mesh & due to single mesh dust & other powder material used to get mix with final product.
Solution
Technical expert from Galaxy Sivtek explained the manufacturer about how to get rid of the issues they were facing.
Mayank Patel, Sr Manager (R&D) quoted to manufacturer “As you want to separate & classify oversize from final product along with removing dust & powder particulates, you will require dual screens. The first screen would be perforated screen with large & coarse opening that will separate oversized granules & other screen would be comparatively fine as compared to first screen & that will remove & throw dust & other particulates”
He further added “For efficient grading & screening, material should get more time to travel over the screens along with more area & for that Linea Sivtek would be the best fit.”
After the explanation & solution given by our technical expert, manufacturer agreed to install dual deck Linea Sivtek® - The rectangular separator.
Result
After installing Dual deck Linea Sivtek®, manufacturer was satisfied as now they were able to separate oversize & remove other particulates along with getting uniform sized masterbatch.
Our technical expert later visited their plant to know how the machine was performing. During the visit, the manufacturer gave positive feedback saying that “Now we are able to successfully grade masterbatch without facing a problem that we were facing with round Vibro separator, thank you for such a great solution.”
Galaxy Sivtek is equipped with years of experience in serving more than 12+ industries. We have built trust with more than 1000+ big brands worldwide with our 24X7 support. Get in touch with our SIVTEK expert any time and we would love to assist you on your sieving and filtering challenges.
