TOMRA Sorting Recycling announces latest plastic flake sorting solutions

TOMRA Sorting Recycling’s new sensor-based flake sorting solutions, are now able to achieve unparalleled recovery and purity rates of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), both of which are polyolefins (PO).  

The two optical flake sorting solutions – the company’s new INNOSORT FLAKE unit and an AUTOSORT FLAKE – form part of TOMRA’s Symphony of all Sorts concept whereby TOMRA Sorting Recycling’s latest generation AUTOSORT.

Due to the heightened performance offered by the new INNOSORT FLAKE, TOMRA Sorting Recycling can now also offer a full optical sorting line consisting of both bottle and flake sorting for polyolefins (PO), with perfectly aligned machines. AUTOSORT is used to pre-sort the material then INNOSORT FLAKE is used for flake sorting.

The new edition of INNOSORT FLAKE is 2 metres wide and uses TOMRA’s Near Infrared (NIR) FLYING BEAM PO-specific and Dual Full Colour Camera technology to deliver high throughput. FLYING BEAM is the only NIR technology on the market which allows automatic continuous signal correction and ensures the most stable and reliable sorting performance, along with the lowest maintenance and energy consumption.

The new NIR sensor technology offers a unique solution for PO applications. PO flakes are sorted by material and colour, and the PO-specific sensor used in our FLYING BEAM patented technology works in unison with the dual-full colour-camera technology to gather enough spectral information to accurately sort PP and PE flakes as small as 2mm.  

The unit can purify both the PE stream and the PP stream by identifying and removing the unwanted polymer contamination, as well as colour impurities.  

For high-end applications such as bottle-to-bottle recycling where the contamination level of the infeed material is low but the quality requirements are particularly high, another flake sorting solution from TOMRA, namely AUTOSORT FLAKE can be used to achieve both extremely high purity and high, stable throughputs.

AUTOSORT FLAKE simultaneously detects material, colour and metal.

Valerio Sama, Head of Product Management at TOMRA Sorting Recycling, comments: “With the use of polyolefins continuing to rise – the global polyolefins market is predicted to reach close to four billion dollars by 2027 – sorting polyolefins will become an increasingly important realm of plastics recycling. We need to be able to increase the purity and yield of recycled plastics to a level where

the material is suitable for re-use in food packaging – and we also need to bring that material back into the loop as part of a circular economy model.”

“Our focus remains on continual improvements to our sensor-based sorting performance – driving higher capacity, higher efficiency and lower loss rates. We’re currently looking into developing a solution for PVC sorting and look forward to sharing more details about this project in due course.”