Zero-waste production: Technology for the in-house recycling of technical elastomers

When it comes to sustainability, the implementation of zero-waste production is an obvious goal to strive for. This is especially true for the field of technical elastomers where drop rates can be up to 80 %. Reusing production wastes for the original application saves primary resources and costs for disposal. Beside other hurdles, the amount of wastes is often too small to be economically recycled with the existing technologies. Therefore, a highly economical recycling machine was developed. Through intensive redesign of known recycling technologies, their deficits have been resolved and a nearly 60 % reduction in energy consumption has been achieved. The so called “Reaktruder” was specially designed for small and medium enterprises and is already in use throughout Europe. By minimizing investment and wear costs, this technology can achieve a return on investment in about 1,500 hours. The development of this technology as well as practical examples of elastomer recycling will be given.