There are two types of irrigation systems made from plastic:
These types of irrigation systems distribute water through emitters. In thick-walled irrigation plastic pipes (> 300 µm), the emitters are fitted with an additional silicone membrane for pressure compensation. This ensures a uniform flow of water and precise irrigation. At the same time, the membrane also prevents the ingress of sand, soil and roots. On thin-walled irrigation hoses, (150-250 µm) LLDPE injection moldings are installed at regular intervals of about 20 cm.
High-quality requirements need to be met for subsurface irrigation. This is because the pipes have to provide a constant flow of water over several kilometers. This means that even small flaws lead to material being rejected during quality control. Purchasing virgin material involves considerable cost, so it makes sense to recycle the irrigation plastic pipes.
Often bulky and high-volume plastics and the different materials in the HDPE irrigation systems present major challenges in the recycling process. The EREMA Laserfilter in the ISEC evo recycling machine has three scrapers that continuously remove impurities, mainly the silicone used for the emitters, with each revolution. The efficiency of this filter enables high throughput rates in the recycling process and the highest recycled pellet quality.
Save costs
Energy efficient
High-quality recycled pellets
Repelletizing irrigation plastic pipes requires impurities such as silicones and foreign polymers to be filtered out completely. The ISEC evo from PURE LOOP with double degassing and the EREMA Laserfilter is particularly well suited for this purpose. Manufacturers that recycle their drip tapes and irrigation pipes using PURE LOOP's technology achieve refeeding quotas of up to 20 percent, without sacrificing quality.
The advantages of the machine are already noticeable at the material intake. The ISEC evo is characterized by a flexible material feed system. Regardless of whether bulky pipes, production waste, start-up clumps, or complete reels with hoses - the machine handles all types of material thanks to its large conveying chamber width and cutting chamber width.
The quality control process for irrigation plastic pipes is carried out using water. This verifies that the irrigation pipes meet the strict standards of a maximum of two pinholes per 10 kilometers. Moisture adds an additional complication to the recycling process. That is why a recycling machine with extruder degassing is needed to avoid a loss of quality of the recycled pellets. This machine configuration processes hygroscopic materials with a total moisture content of up to 4% or other impurities.
Machines with degassing technology remove moisture at two points.
The EREMA Laserfilter quickly and continuously removes impurities, ensuring high throughput rates and high-quality recycled pellets.
The ISEC evo efficiently recycles a variety of materials in different shapes:
The ISEC evo recycling machine can also process clumps from the production of irrigation plastic pipes. The material can then be used again in the production of drip tapes and thick-walled pipes.
Customers who are already recycling pipes and hoses using the ISEC evo machine have produced irrigation plastic pipes and hoses containing recycled pellets in joint trials together with PURE LOOP. The tests revealed the following details: