Digitally Controlled Granulators Offer Energy Efficiency

At the Fakuma trade fair in October, Hellweg Maschinenbau  presented a selection of its digitally controlled granulators for plastics recycling. These include the MDSi 340/150, the MDSi 600/300 and the MDSGi 1500/600, representatives of a newly developed series of wet granulators with forced feed and low power consumption.

The MDSi 340/150 Smart Control machine-side granulator has the highest power range at 1.5-4 kW and capacity of 10-80 kg/hour. Its primary application is enabling the recirculation of bulky sprues and runners. Material can be fed in by chute, feed hopper or conveyor belt, and discharged by suction. A film edge strip feeder is available as an option.

Hellweg’s 300 series granulators enable grinding of thick-walled moldings, sheets, sprues, pipes and profiles and, when using the special BR rotor, even single-stage shredding of solid lumps from production startups. The MDSi 600/300 Smart Control Plus version on display at Fakuma features power consumption analysis to optimize economy and automated lubrication with Bluetooth monitoring to minimize maintenance effort.

Hellweg also presented a 3D printed model of the new MDSGi 1500/600 wet granulator, due to its weight (around 25 metric tons). It features a forced feed system for film recycling, and offers a high ratio of throughput-to-energy consumption. The cutting geometry is designed for particle quality and size distribution, with a low proportion of unusable fines.

The systems feature Hellweg’s digital Smart Control System, which captures parameters such as power consumption, motor speed and bearing temperatures, as well as blade, screen and V belt status. By continuously optimizing the relationship between motor load and throughput, it enables economical operation with little operator input. Smart Control is generally available for all models and sizes of Hellweg granulator systems.