Developed by SB Plastics Machinery, the Moby IR and vacuum technology can decontaminate recycled PET, making it suitable, once again, for use in contact with foodstuffs. This is what was shown by formal tests, performed for the purpose, by Fraunhofer-Institut für Verfahrenstechnik und Verpackung.
The "cleaning efficiency" was measured using a migration test following artificial contamination of recycled PET with pollutants in quantities able to produce a "worst case scenario". After contamination, the PET bottle flakes were divided into two batches: one was treated directly in the Moby reactor using infrared radiations plus vacuum technology, while the other was processed in the G-Moby system, and thus submitted to pelletisation with a Gamma Meccanica extruder followed by decontamination in the Moby IR and vacuum reactor. In both cases, the cleaning efficiency exceeded 99%, a level compatible with the parameters imposed by the American FDA for the reuse of recycled PET in contact with foodstuffs.
SB Plastics Machinery and Gamma Meccanica therefore become the first Italian companies able to offer complete PET recycling systems able to deliver recycled PET that can be used for food packaging.