The recycling of beverage containers made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is garnering higher purity and yield with high speed, high strength eddy current separation technology from Eriez®. Eriez’ newest line of eddy current separators deliver exceptional nonferrous particle separation from PET flake. Recyclers can obtain a single pass aluminum reduction up to 92 percent and achieve a clean PET yield of 97 percent to 99 percent. According to studies conducted by Eriez, a one percent improvement in good product yield can save a company up to $230,000 in recycled PET annually with a 60-inch wide Eddy Current Separator. The sparators use the following process:
- PET containing metal contaminants—such as aluminum—is fed onto a conveyor belt in a controlled, low-density thin layer.
- The belt then passes over the rotating magnets and eddy currents are created in the aluminum.
- When the polarity of the magnetic field around the aluminum is the same as the rotating magnets, the aluminum is repelled from the magnet. This causes the trajectory of the nonferrous metal to be different than the PET flake.
- The two streams of material are separated by an adjustable splitter in a simple, high-volume manner.
