1. Project Overview | Colombia PE Film Plastic Pelletizing Project
This cooperative project is a customized PE waste film recycling pelletizing production line solution for a local plastic recycling factory in Colombia. Facing the client’s mixed raw material types and unstable raw material moisture content, our team optimized the feeding system and screw structure of the 150 type two-stage water-ring pelletizing system, realizing compatible processing of two different PE raw materials, stable output, and excellent finished pellet quality. It is a typical successful case of high-efficiency plastic recycling pelletizing equipment applied in the South American market.
- Client Country: Colombia
- Processing Raw Materials: Washed packaging PE waste material + Squeezed hot-melted PE film scraps
- Equipment Model: 150 Type Two-Stage Water-Ring Plastic Pelletizing Machine (150+135 matched configuration)
- Core Client Requirements: The equipment needs to adapt to two different feeding modes and material characteristics, with a customized screw design to meet mixed PE material pelletizing production standards
- Project Operation Effect: Stable production output reaches 150-200kg/h, finished PE pellets are uniform, smooth, and free of impurities, fully meeting the client’s secondary processing and sales standards
2. Customized Solution for Colombian Client
Aiming at the diversity of the client’s PE raw materials (washed crushed flakes and hot-melted squeezed film materials), we made targeted customized upgrades to the standard 150 two-stage water-ring plastic pelletizing system in terms of feeding structure and screw design to ensure universal processing performance.
2.1 Flexible Multi-Material Feeding Design
We adopted detachable dual-function hoppers for the equipment feeding system, which is compatible with both soft hot-melt film materials and hard washed crushed PE flakes. It perfectly matches the client’s two production raw materials, realizing free switching of production modes without frequent equipment replacement, and greatly improving production flexibility and continuity.
2.2 Optimized Screw Structural Design
For the mixed characteristics of high-moisture film and purified PE flakes, we customized a front-shallow and rear-deep alternating screw structure for the two-stage extruder. The front shallow thread design enhances shear plasticization and volatile removal efficiency for wet film materials, while the rear deep thread structure ensures stable material conveying and uniform homogenization, solving the problems of incomplete melting and unstable extrusion of mixed PE materials.
3. Working Principle & Complete Process of 150 Type Two-Stage Water-Ring Pelletizing System
The 150 type two-stage water-ring pelletizing production line takes the lead in adopting two-stage extrusion plasticization + water-ring integrated cutting and cooling process. The whole production process is automated from feeding, plasticizing, filtering, pelletizing, cooling to drying, which is suitable for high-moisture, impurity-containing, complex component PE waste film recycling and pelletizing, effectively avoiding strand breakage defects of traditional pelletizing machines.
Phase 1: Two-Stage Extrusion & Plasticization & Melt Filtration
Two-stage segmented extrusion is the core advantage of this pelletizing system, which realizes graded plasticization, degassing and homogenization of PE waste materials, ensuring pure and stable melt quality.
First-Stage Extrusion (Shear Plasticization & Vacuum Venting): Waste PE film materials are sent to the upper first-stage extruder. Through high-strength screw shear force, the materials are fully melted and plasticized. Equipped with an efficient vacuum venting system, it can thoroughly remove residual moisture, volatile impurities and peculiar smells in PE film raw materials, solving the problem of bubble and impurity defects in finished pellets caused by high material moisture.
Second-Stage Extrusion (Stable Homogenization Extrusion): The primarily plasticized and degassed PE melt enters the 150-type main second-stage extruder. The optimized screw structure further homogenizes the melt and builds stable pressure, ensuring continuous and uniform extrusion of the melt from the die head without material stagnation or uneven output.
Hydraulic Melt Filtration: A dual-plunger dual-station hydraulic screen changer is matched in the extrusion process. It can efficiently filter dust, plastic impurities and foreign matter mixed in waste PE films, ensure the high purity of PE melt, and lay a foundation for high-quality finished pellets.
Phase 2: Water-Ring Pelletizing, Cooling & Post-Processing
The water-ring cutting and cooling integrated process realizes instant cutting and rapid cooling of hot melt, with high pellet forming rate and uniform particle size.
Die Head Extrusion & High-Speed Cutting: The purified PE melt is extruded evenly through die head holes. The high-speed rotating cutter close to the die face cuts the flowing hot melt instantly, realizing continuous pelletizing operation.
Centrifugal Water-Ring Cooling & Conveying: Synchronous with cutting, the high-speed rotating water ring forms a circulating water layer wrapping the die head. The hot pellets are thrown into the water ring by centrifugal force, which rapidly cools and solidifies the pellets, and the circulating water automatically conveys the pellets to the subsequent dewatering equipment, avoiding pellet adhesion and deformation.
Dewatering & Drying Finishing: The pellet-water mixture enters the high-speed centrifugal drying system, which thoroughly separates water from plastic pellets. The final dry, uniform, glossy PE pellets are conveyed to the storage silo for centralized collection and packaging, with no manual intervention in the whole process.
4. Dual Front-End Feeding Modes | Adapt to Diverse PE Raw Materials
To meet the pretreatment needs of different recycled PE film raw materials, the 150 two-stage water-ring pelletizing system is equipped with two professional feeding modes, covering almost all types of PE waste film raw materials on the market:
4.1 Crushing Chamber Feeding Mode
Suitable for uncrushed dry PE film rolls, edge-trim film rolls and whole-piece waste films. The materials enter the integrated heavy-duty crushing chamber, and are shredded into small flakes in a sealed environment. Friction heat forms hot agglomerates, which are directly compacted and fed into the first-stage extruder, realizing integrated automatic production of feeding-crushing-extrusion.
4.2 Side Force Feeding Mode
Suitable for pre-washed crushed PE flakes, sheet materials and powder materials. The side spiral force feeder quantitatively and uniformly presses the materials into the extruder, ensuring stable feeding volume, avoiding material blocking and empty feeding, and maintaining continuous and stable production.
5. Core Advantages of 150 Type Two-Stage Water-Ring Pelletizing System
- Strong Material Adaptability: Perfectly process high-moisture PE waste film, mixed PE materials, washed flakes and hot-melted film scraps, solving the problem of difficult processing of complex waste plastics.
- No Strand Breakage, High Yield: Water-ring integrated cutting process abandons the traditional strand drawing mode, completely eliminating strand breakage and uneven particle problems, with finished pellet yield close to 100%.
- High Automation & Labor-Saving: The whole line realizes automatic feeding, extrusion, pelletizing, cooling and drying, reducing manual operation and production cost.
- High-Quality Finished Pellets: Vacuum degassing and multi-stage filtration ensure pure pellet texture, uniform particle size, smooth surface, high market value of recycled pellets.
- Stable Production Capacity: The standard output is 150-200kg/h, supporting long-term continuous operation, suitable for medium and large-scale plastic recycling factories.
6. Project Final Effect & Customer Feedback
After the installation and commissioning of the 150 type two-stage water-ring pelletizing system in the Colombian client’s factory, the equipment has been running stably for a long time. The customized screw and feeding system perfectly adapt to the client’s mixed PE raw materials. The actual production output stably reaches the standard 150-200kg/h. The produced PE recycled pellets have uniform size, no bubbles, no impurities and good gloss, which fully meet the client’s requirements for pellet sales and secondary plastic processing.
The client highly recognizes the equipment’s wide material adaptability, high automation degree and stable operation performance, and the project has become a benchmark case of PE waste film recycling pelletizing in the Colombian local plastic recycling industry.
7. Applicable Scope of Equipment
This 150 two-stage water-ring plastic pelletizing machine is mainly used for recycling and re-pelletizing of various PE waste materials, including waste PE packaging films, agricultural PE films, PE edge trims, washed PE plastic flakes, hot-melted PE scraps and other complex high-moisture PE waste plastics. It is widely used in plastic recycling factories, waste plastic processing plants and recycled plastic pellet production enterprises.
