Spinning and recycling go together in a single step

As a medium-sized German machine construction business, BB Engineering has been manufacturing components and systems for synthetic fibre and film production for more than 20 years.

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For several years now, the company has been concentrating on recycling system development work. International Plastics News for Asia discussed with Dr. Klaus Schäfer, Managing Director, and Mr. Matthias Schmitz, Head of Engineering Recycling Technology at BB Engineering just how the seemingly different business units interact and how the recycling business profits from the existing extrusion and spinning systems know-how.

Dr. Schäfer, BB Engineering has its origins in the manufacture of extrusion and filtration systems for synthetic fibre spinning equipment. How did you come to open a new business unit dedicated to PET recycling?

Dr. Schäfer: You are fundamentally right. Our original business was, and remains, focused on components such as extruders and filters for processing the most diverse polymers into synthetic fibres, but also into films and on developing and distributing other products. Soon, our portfolio was complemented by our own compact spinning system – in the form of the VarioFil. Our extruder and filters have also been used for rPET for many years now. We first supplied components for rPET back in 2005. For these reasons, PET recycling was not something completely new to us. In 2012, we unveiled the VarioFil type ‘R’, which also spins rPET granulate into high-end yarn. And, in 2016, we went a step further with the type ‘R+’: the direct processing of bottle flakes using our compact spinning system – in other words, recycling and spinning in a single step. The background to this was to dispense with the intermediate step of producing the granulate, hence saving lots of energy and cutting conversion costs, and to create high-quality POY from bottle flakes.

What potential benefits do you see in the recycling of synthetic fibres?