The plastic flake analysis system "Flake Scan" from Sesotec has been nominated for the prestigious award of “Recycling Machinery Innovation of the Year” in this year’s Plastics Recycling Awards Europe. The material analysis system makes it possible to determine the precise quality of plastic flakes and regrind within minutes. The quality of plastic flakes and regrind is crucial in determining whether plastic processors and manufacturers can profitably use and sell plastic recyclate. Depending on how the recyclate will be used, elaborate manual, visual, or thermal sample analyses are often necessary in order to assess the quality of a batch of materials. Sample analyses are also used as a means of evaluating the effectiveness of the recycling sorting process. Such sample analyses are hardly representative, and furthermore require additional resources, costs, and time.

Compared to traditional sampling methods for plastic flakes and regrind, Sesotec "Flake Scan" offers significant improvements in terms of analysis accuracy and time and resources spent. The analysis system delivers data that can be quickly leveraged to make decisions about whether plastic flakes and regrind are pure enough for profitable use. It can also provide insights into the effectiveness of an entire recycling process and helps to ensure individual plant components are functioning as they should be.

“We are delighted that Flake Scan has made it to the final round of consideration for the Plastics Recycling Awards Europe,” says Michael Perl, Group Director of Sorting & Recycling at Sesotec. “Flake Scan’s advantage is the ability to determine the composition of a batch of flakes in just a few minutes. A combination of up to three sensors (color, near infrared, and metal) automatically provides precise, reproducible analyses of material samples by detecting color errors, plastic types, and metallic contaminants.”

The Plastics Recycling Show Europe is set to take place at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Center on November 4th and 5th. The 2021 award winners will be announced on the second day of the event.

Plastics Recycling Awards Europe is organized by Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE) and Crain Communications. The event brings together companies, organizations, and individuals involved in the European plastics recycling industry.