POLYSENSE

Development of a low cost in-line polymer inspection system to improve the use of recycled materials in plastics processing industry

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The polymer industry, including producers, converters and machine manufacturers employ 1.6 million people and generate annual sales worth over €300 billion. Europe is the world leader in plastics recycling and the second worldwide plastic producer, but competence by emerging industrialised nations, such as China, is growing bigger and represents a major thread for European interests in mid and long term. There is recently a big concern towards the recycling of wasted materials, including plastics. Despite the growth of recycled materials in the polymer sector, there are presently two main factors that prevent a higher use of recycled materials: Uncertainty in fixing final product density and quality of the final product, which is directly affected by viscosity of the blend. Yet despite this tremendous competition, many polymer processes still rely on trial and error for their optimisation, leading to the creation of enormous tonnes of scrap during adjusting periods. Current methods, which enable only indirect measurements such as temperature, screw torque and pressure, prove completely insufficient for characterising such complex behaviour. The industry needs rapid, reliable, non-invasive and cost effective analytical methods for process control in order to ensure desired values of density and viscosity of the polymer. This project thus proposes to develop a compact, non invasive, real-time sensor based on an ultrasonic piezoelectric transducer for in-line measurements during polymer processes. POLYSENSE will be designed for suitable insertion in a standard pressure port, which will enable the in-line measurement of density and viscosity of the polymers while circulating in a molten state inside the machine allowing the prediction of the polymer behaviour and the feedback to the process control. The proposal is highly relevant for the SME proposers who are polymer processors and will thus benefit directly as end-users from the developed POLYSENSE technology by incrementing the ratio of cheap recycled material within their products and increasing final product quality, or equipment builders and suppliers who will benefit from supplying this innovative technology to the European polymer processing industry.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Despite growing competition from emerging industrialised nations, European polymer processing still relies largely on trial and error. Thanks to in-line sensors developed with EU support, that era is going the way of the dinosaur.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Europe is the second largest plastics manufacturer globally and the worldwide leader in plastics recycling. However, lack of direct measurement technologies for processing parameters and conditions leads to reduced reliability of final product characteristics and large volumes of scrap.

Two new ultrasonic sensors to measure density and viscosity inside extruders in real time herald a step-change in European plastics processing. With EU support of the project http://www.polysense.eu/ (POLYSENSE) , scientists have significantly improved process technology to reduce scrap produced form raw materials and enable greater utilisation of scrap to produce new products of higher quality.

The density sensor has been tested in an industrial environment for processing both virgin and recycled polypropylene. It withstands processing temperatures and pressures, and demonstrates good resolution and repeatability of measurements. In addition, with proper calibration, it shows promising potential for use in sensing the percentage of filler in a material.

Scientists tested the ultrasonic viscosity sensor in laboratory operation of extruders on several polymers and calibration liquids. The sensor was able to measure viscosity at high temperatures and provide a measurement each second despite required electronic signal processing done by computer. Accurate viscosity measurements will facilitate increased processing speeds for higher throughput without stoppages to deal with clogging.

POLYSENSE ultrasonic density and viscosity sensors for in-line measurements of polymer processing characteristics should facilitate enhanced product quality and reliability, faster throughput and reduced scrap. These benefits are equally applicable to virgin and recycled polymer processing and promise to significantly boost the competitive edge of numerous European small and medium-sized enterprises active in the plastics industry. Eco-conscious consumers will also be happy to see an increase in the quality of plastic products together with reduced scrap volume.