Rapid exhibits new faster cleaning and maintenance granulators at Fakuma 2006

Three new series of granulators, featuring an innovative new ‘open-hearted’ engineering concept that facilitates drastically faster cleaning, maintenance and inspection, forms the centrepiece of the Rapid Granulators AB exhibit at Fakuma 2006 (Friedrichshafen, Germany, October 17-21). The new Rapid 300, 400 and 500 Series granulators have a new silver and black colour scheme, and between them provide cutter house widths between 300 and 1200 mm, and a throughput of up to 1500 kg/hour. The Rapid exhibit at Fakuma can be found in Hall B1, stand number 7107.

Rapid’s ‘open-hearted’ engineering concept is based on an ergonomic design for swift and direct access to the heart of the machine during production changes. Within a couple of steps – and without the use of tools – fast and easy access is gained to the cutter house and associated components, including its fixed and rotating blades, for cleaning, servicing or knife-changing. Clear visual access to the core machine parts allows “visibly clean” inspection and approval of the machine before it resumes operation, preventing potential contamination at colour and material changes.

Cleaning and maintenance can account for up to 80 percent of a granulator’s running costs. Hence any reduction in these costs, both in terms of time and money, will have a direct impact on the machine’s efficiency and performance.

“Downtime for cleaning and maintenance add up to the highest cost factor by far in a granulator’s lifecycle. Our new ‘open-hearted’machines can shorten these ‘pit stops’ by up to 50 percent, and help our customers achieve greater production efficiency and higher profitability,” said Johan Magnusson, Sales & Marketing Director at Rapid Group. “The net result for the operator is longer up times and reduced labour costs.”

The Rapid ‘open-hearted’ family is well-suited for high-volume central or beside-the-press granulation of injection-moulded, blow-moulded or extruded plastic waste or rejects for direct recycling. The new 300, 400 and 500 Series all use the Rapid cutting technique, comprising clean double-scissors cutting action and a constant cutting circle, to produce uniformly-sized granules with minimal dust content, even with the toughest materials. Moreover, the machines’ cutting action reduces the force needed to slice through the plastics waste, which results in reduced energy consumption.

Reader enquiries