Valves for Abrasive Slurry in PET Recycling Facility

Pinch Valves for Discharge from Hydrocyclone

A PET recycling (polyethylene terephthalate) and waste management facility are using AKO Pinch Valves within their heavy discharge hydrocyclone transportation system.

Recycling considerably benefits the environment, as new goods are replaced by recycled goods: it reduces demand for raw resources, requires less energy for processing, and reduces the quantity of plastic in landfill. PET is the most recycled plastic because of its multiple advantages over other types of plastic.

Valve for Abrasive Slurry Application Details

The Pinch Valve assists with this waste management application by controlling a discharge slurry of unwanted glass, plastic flakes and metals (springs), which is essential to the quality of the final product.

The abrasive slurry is approximately 25 degrees Celsius in temperature, and passing through the Pinch Valve between 2-3 Bar.

The Pinch Valve for abrasive slurry is positioned under a hydrocyclone to a bin. There are three hydrocyclones and one valve per hydrocyclone. There are always two hydrocyclones in operation at any time – one is on standby in case of emergency failures or problems.

The Pinch Valve is held in the normally closed position by applying compressed air to it, and is only opened when discharge from a hydrocyclone is required, on a timed release. The timing is set to 5 minutes for operation, open for a short duration and then operated again 5 minutes later.

Pinch Valve Performance

The waste management facility has used AKO Pinch Valves for 1.5 years currently. They were originally using a different Pinch Valve manufacturer because the alternative valves were already installed on their machinery, but they have found that the inner rubber sleeve for the pinch valves from AKO for abrasive slurry lasts longer and have therefore changed supplier to AKO.

The facility told AKO that they are satisfied with their current AKO Pinch Valve products and that they do the job well. The inner rubber sleeve inside the Pinch Valves for abrasive slurry are not needed to be replaced often. They last long enough that they may only perform a re-sleeve on the valves once a year.

The sleeve material used is Natural Rubber which has a high durability and excellent performance rates (suited to the corect application). The rubber sleeve is the only replaceable part with AKO Pinch Valves, giving the product an exceptional total cost of ownership. The sleeves are readily available from AKO for next day delivery in the UK, but the facility are keeping a couple of spare sleeves on the shelf in case of failures.