Plastic & Masterbatch Pellet Screening

The Task:

Manufacturers of plastic components use plastic and masterbatch pellets as the input material for many of their extrusion, moulding and forming processes.

The pellets are melted down and formed into the many plastic components used in everyday life.

The companies that make the pellets extrude and cut them into the sizes required, but the process isn’t perfect. Pellets can stick together forming doubles, and occasionally long strands and fine particles are created. The doubles and long strands will clog injection and forming tools, and the fines will burn up and leave marks on finished components. To remove these unwanted pieces, the pellets must be screened.

The Solution:

Responding to demand for an efficient method of sieving plastic and masterbatch pellets, Gough developed the Vibrecon Pellet Screen.

The Pellet Screen consists of two screening decks and uses a gyratory vibrating action to separate the mixed pellets into three fractions discharged from three separate spouts.

The top perforated screening plate separates off the longs and the doubles. The longs lie flat across the holes and move to the top outlet spout.

Fine particles are sieved off using the lower screening mesh and discharge through the bottom spout. Good pellets stay above the mesh and discharge through the middle deck spout.

Depending on the pellet size required, different aperture screening plates and sieving meshes can be fitted, meaning one Pellet Screen can be setup to process a variety of pellets.

Pellet Screening

The Result:

The Pellet Screen gives a consistent and accurate separation to leave a high quality pellet ready to be used by plastic manufacturers without the risk of damaging expensive production equipment, or wasting time and materials making things that will later be rejected upon inspection.

The Pellet Screen is so effective that pellet manufacturers typically have multiple Vibrecon Pellet Screens running on different production lines, with some having dozens within their production facilities.