Chinaplas: Starlinger presents circular economy solutions for plastic packaging

The Austrian technology leader for woven plastic packaging production and supplier of plastics recycling systems sets the focus on circular packaging solutions such as recycled big bags or PET bottles and presents a tape extrusion line for processing recycled PP.

On the occasion of this year’s Chinaplas in Shanghai from April 23 to 26, Starlinger is hosting an Open House at its production facility in nearby Taicang. A 1.5 hour drive away from Shanghai, visitors can see a starEX tape extrusion line with eqoCLEAN filter module in operation there. This machine setup allows the production of tapes with high shares of recycled polypropylene and CaCO₃ – an important stepping stone on the way to a circular economy for raffia sacks and FIBCs.

The eqoCLEAN filter module is designed for producing high-quality PP tapes with post-consumer recycled PP. It enables, for example, the use of recycled polypropylene from post-consumer big bags to produce heavy-duty PP tape fabric for new big bags, thus closing the loop for this popular packaging application.

The eqoCLEAN module consists of a SPB single-piston power-backflush filter, a melt pump, and a second filter unit. The SPB filter has one piston and four cavities for filter screens. The automatic high-pressure backflushing process cleans the filter screens throroughly, increasing their lifetime and reducing machine downtime significantly. During the hydraulic power-backflush procedure the tape line operates at full production speed without interruption of the production process.

With the eqoCLEAN filter module, tapes containing high shares of CaCO₃ and post-consumer rPP can be produced on Starlinger’s starEX tape extrusion lines without cutting back on production efficiency. This is essential for Starlinger’s “Circular Packaging” concept which promotes closed product cycles for big bags to reduce resource consumption and environmental pollution.

As a second highlight, the new RX 6.1^pro circular loom for lightweight and heavy PP tape fabric will be on show at the Starlinger booth during Chinaplas. The middle-sized 6-shuttle loom puts the focus on sustainable packaging production combined with longer part lifetime and operator-friendly design. With production speeds of up to 920 picks per minute and more than 85% production efficiency the loom delivers outstanding fabric quality from 50 to 140 g/m² (140 to 200 g/m² as heavy-duty version) while saving energy and resources.