The Vecoplan V-ECO shreds all plastics

Vecoplan, Bad Marienberg, Germany, says its V-ECO plastic shredder is not only energy efficient but also powerful and versatile. In close cooperation with customers, the company says its engineers have designed the machine to handle extreme use in almost 160 test series: It can shred foils, fabrics, fiber materials, hard plastics and even big bags. Around 80 processors worldwide have been successfully using this unit daily since 2013, Vecoplan says.

“Where others have to stop, we’re just getting started,” says Martin Klotz, area sales manager at Vecoplan.

Klotz says polypropylene fiber is difficult to process. This is a challenge for many plastics processors, especially as in-house recycling becomes more and more relevant for cost reasons. According to the company, the V-ECO 1700 is the only machine on the market that can shred large quantities of bulk material containers and maintain a constantly high-quality level as part of preprocessing, enabling customers to use the shredded material into their own production.

Since the debut of the V-ECO at K 2013 in Düsseldorf, Germany, the international fair for plastics and rubber, the machine has undergone many developments, Vecoplan says.

“Over the past few years, customers have approached us with more and more new applications,” Klotz says. “Among these were extremely difficult materials which were to be shredded qualitatively and at a high throughput--besides big bags, there were nets, ropes, foils, hard and technical plastics, fabric or fiber materials and even the so-called Angel’s Hair.” These wafer-thin threads are feared in the plastics industry, Vecoplan says, because they interfere with production and lead to quality losses in processing.

In almost 160 test runs, the Vecoplan developers say they designed the ideal rotor geometries together with the users--even for Angel’s Hair. “We can change the rotors, blades and screen to adapt the V-ECO to the input and output requirements to even match the nets and ropes that are very difficult to handle,” says Klotz.

The V-ECO’s hydraulically swivelling bottom flap and downward swivelling screen allow the operator easy access to the rotor, Vecoplan says. Customers can remove extraneous material, turn or exchange the counter knife or convert the machine. The material is fed continuously into the machine thanks to the inclined design of the machine base and the continuously adjustable ram control.

For energy-efficient operation, Vecoplan says it has installed the cost-effective electronic slip control (ESC) drive. “This solution makes gears and turbo clutches superfluous,” says Klotz. The multipolar, asynchronous motor with its frequency converter works with a special belt drive that incorporates slip control and an extraneous material detection system with a motor brake. The developers focused on a compact machine design, Vecoplan says, that is meant to minimize the susceptibility to failure, optimize the material flow and make all service and maintenance work easier for users.

According to the company, around 80 international processors now rely on the V-ECO. These include a leading manufacturer of high-quality intermediate-bulk containers (IBCs), tanks and other containers.

 “The Spanish GCR Group, manufacturer of plastic compounds and masterbatches, also relies on a V-ECO for shredding post-industrial films,” Klotz says. The machine achieves a throughput of 4 to 6 tons per hour.

Vecoplan says many other companies also use the V-ECO, including BS Plastics, Birmingham, England; and Bösel Recycling Management GmbH, Bösel, Germany.

“Other shredders quickly reach their limits with these different materials, but not our V-ECO,” says Klotz. “We’re eager to see what kind of customer projects await us in the future.”