Bunting Magnetic Separation Reduces Waste by 94% at EcoVyn Limited

EcoVyn Ltd is a plastics processing company based in the United Kingdom. The company first came into contact with Bunting at the Inerplas International Plastics Exhibition in September 2017. As a company at the forefront of PVC compounding, EcoVyn is always seeking to bring new technology to the marketplace. Immediately, EcoVyn was interested in Bunting’s cutting edge magnetic separation equipment for plastics processors. After purchasing and installing two FF Drawer Magnets from Bunting, EcoVyn has reduced their waste by 94% with our magnetic separation products.

When EcoVyn first met Bunting at Interplas, they explained they were greatly struggling with metal contamination in their product. EcoVyn currently produces reprocessed, blended, and virgin plastic compounds for a variety of applications, and currently have one of the most advanced and innovative production processes for doing so in the UK. EcoVyn utilizes an exceptionally high amount of plastic waste in their process, and nearly 80% is post-consumer waste. In a given month, EcoVyn is processing 1,000 tons of reclaimed plastic waste, and are seeking to increase this number to 16,000 tons a year.

Issues with Metal Contaminated Plastic Waste

During their unique manufacturing process, EcoVyn first must clean plastic waste, then blend it into virgin plastic material. Ideally, waste produced during this manufacturing process will also be recycled, with a goal to have as little plastic waste ultimately discarded as possible. However, because plastic waste is so frequently contaminated with metal, EcoVyn was struggling to meet their target goals. When the company first spoke to Bunting, they only had metal detectors installed to protect against metal contamination. While metal detectors are an excellent way to remove all types of metal contamination, including ferrous, non-ferrous, and stainless steel metals, EcoVyn was unhappy with the high reject rate of the metal detectors. Currently, the reject rate was resulting in 60 tons of waste material being generated, with a large proportion being good quality plastic.

Bunting was invited by EcoVyn to review the manufacturer’s processing site, and Bunting’s magnet experts were immediately on the job. During the site review, Bunting’s team identified that there was a large amount of ferrous waste present. To remove this ferrous waste and reduce the burden on the metal detectors, Bunting recommended that EcoVyn install Bunting’s FF Drawer Magnets. With FF Drawer Magnets working to remove magnetically-susceptible metals, this would mean that metal detectors would only have to remove non-ferrous, non-magnetically susceptible metals.

FF Drawer Magnets: A Plastics Industry Standard for Magnetic Separation

When Bunting reviewed EcoVyn’s process, they recommended installing the FF Drawer Magnets between the screw conveyor transporting the 8-10mm infeed material and the metal detector. Then, the metal-cleansed material would pass onto a pulverizer before continuing the process. After the FF Drawer Magnets were installed, the number of metal detector rejections diminished significantly. As a result of fewer rejections, the amount of waste generated was significantly reduced.

Bunting’s FF Drawer Magnets are widely used throughout the plastics industry, and utilize powerful magnets to achieve simple, effective removal of ferrous metal from free-flowing materials. At EcoVyn, the FF Drawer Magnets installed are fitted with two rows of highly powerful rare earth neodymium magnets. There are two tube magnets in the first row and three tube magnets in the second row, with the lower second row aligned so that they are positioned beneath the gap of the two upper magnets. This design ensures that all product will come into contact with at least one of the tube magnets. As a result, any ferrous metal will be attracted to the powerful magnetic force of the tube magnets and effectively captured.

Magnetic Separation Results

EcoVyn’s results speak for themselves. After installing FF Drawer Magnets, they were able to reduce their overall amount of waste material generated from 60 tons down to just 4 tons. This is a hugely significant profits-saving measure, and results in much more usable plastic material.

EcoVyn also found that it was necessary to clean the FF Drawer Filter magnets every 20 minutes, which illuminates the exceptionally high level of ferrous metal contamination that is commonly found in plastic waste. The FF Drawer Magnets caught ferrous metal contamination ranging from small fine ferrous dust to washers, nails, electrical capacitors, and steel sheet shards.

After the FF Drawer Magnets were installed, Bunting’s UK testing facility performed controlled laboratory tests that indicated 99.9% of all ferrous metals had been successfully removed. Now, EcoVyn is able to minimize waste and produce a higher volume of final plastic product that can go on to be used in products such as internal windows, pipe, picture frames, and shoe soles.

To learn more about separating metal contamination from plastics during either virgin manufacturing or the plastics recycling process, contact Bunting today.