Germany: At the K 2010 plastics trade fair in hall 10, stand 10E60, S+S Separation and Sorting Technology GmbH presents comprehensive separation and sorting solutions for the complete life cycle of plastics. As a trade fair highlight S+S presents magnet and metal separators that have been developed specifically for the installation at high-performance injection-moulding machines and protect these machines against metal contaminations.

During processing, smallest metal particles that might be contained in the plastic granulate may get into the molten plastic and thus cause expensive malfunctions in the injection-moulding process. In the production of preforms another important aspect is that PET is processed at high material temperatures, which means that conventional metal separators may not be suitable for such applications. S+S has developed magnet systems and metal separators in high-temperature version that reliably remove metal particles from very hot plastic granulates and thus protect processing machines against damage.

With the Protector-XHT S+S has successfully developed a metal separator in high-temperature version for processing temperatures of up to 200ºC. The separator is installed directly at the inlet of the injection-moulding machine or after the drier and thus inspects all the fed materials at the last chance control point. The Protector-XHT metal separator for example is used in the injection-moulding of preforms, where it reliably detects and removes metal contaminations in hot PET granulate.

At the S+S trade fair stand the Magbox magnet separator also will be presented in a high-temperature version. As a magnet material the Magbox-HT uses a rare-earth compound with a magnetic power of more than 10,000 Gauss. The maximum operating temperature, which is the temperature that a magnet may be exposed to without any irreversible loss of power, is 350 °C. In simple applications ferrite magnets with a magnetic power of only 2,000 Gauss are often used. Compared to ferrites, rare-earth magnets are considerably more temperature-stable and more powerful.

Erwin Reitberger, S+S Branch Manager – Plastics Industry, on the new systems in high-temperature version: “S+S magnet systems and metal separators of the HT and accordingly XHT range prevent malfunctions in the production of preforms and caps and closures. This re-sults in longer machine operating times and thus increases the economic efficiency of capital-intensive production lines. Increased quality as a result of reduced rejects and defective parts means improved customer satisfaction. S+S systems convince with sophisticated detail solu-tions and amortise in a very short time.”