Grün VPF Series UV Sorting System

Bottle-to-bottle recycling and food-grade packaging production demand a level of rPET purity that goes far beyond standard polymer sorting — aged yellow flakes and OBA-containing fragments are virtually invisible to conventional optical systems, yet even trace amounts of these contaminants can cause visible discoloration, compromise food-contact compliance, and downgrade recycled material from premium food-grade to lower-value non-food applications. For recycling operations serving the bottle-to-bottle and food packaging supply chain, the ability to detect and remove these spectrally hidden defects is the key to producing AAA-grade rPET that meets the stringent requirements of food-contact regulations and brand owners. Advanced UV-based sorting is the key to achieving the purity standard that defines the future of circular packaging.

The Grün VPF Series is an advanced UV-based sorting system tailored for bottle-to-bottle recycling and food packaging production. Leveraging superior UV fluorescence technology, the system accurately detects and removes aged yellow flakes and OBA-containing fragments — preventing product defects and achieving AAA-grade rPET purity that conventional sorting systems cannot deliver.

Using application-specific sorting algorithms, the system ensures consistently high detection accuracy across diverse flake compositions and contamination conditions — helping processors protect food-grade compliance, eliminate discoloration defects, and deliver premium rPET that meets the exacting standards of bottle-to-bottle recycling and food packaging applications with unmatched confidence.

Technical Features

● Tailored Optical Sorting System for PET Flakes

✦ High-capacity vibratory feeding system evenly distributes plastic flakes into a single layer to minimize overlapping

✦ Sealed scanning/control enclosures provide machine with high-level dust protection

✦ Integrated Dust Control System maintains high operation reliability and performance consistency, and minimizes downtime

✦ Modular vertical frame design lets processors scale capacity to match their needs, available in 4, 6, 8, or 10-chute configurations

● Reliable Industrial Fluorescence Inspection System

✦ Captures fluorescence signals with 0.1mm² resolution for precise detection

✦ Detects weak fluorescence of aged PET excited by UV LEDs

✦ Detects intense blue-white fluorescence of OBA-containing PET

● High-Performance Air Ejector System

✦ Engineered for enhanced durability, optimized speed and air consumption

✦ Accurate rejection and reliable performance at high-capacity sorting

✦ Adjustable settings for typical plastic flake sizes (3-15 mm)

● 15-Inch Industrial Touchscreen Control Panel

✦ Intuitive HMI with multilingual support

✦ Instant switching between product profiles

✦ Comprehensive remote support system

✩ Remote Access and Monitoring

✩ Real-time Performance Dashboard

✩ Live Expert Diagnosis

✩ Interactive Troubleshooting

Applications

Benefits

By detecting and removing aged yellow flakes and OBA-containing fragments, the system produces AAA grade clear PET that meets the stringent quality requirements for bottle-to-bottle recycling and food-grade packaging applications.

Aged yellow flakes and OBA-containing fragments are often visually indistinguishable from clean PET under normal lighting conditions. The UV Camera System overcomes this limitation by detecting fluorescence signatures that are invisible to both the human eye and conventional RGB cameras, enabling removal of contamination that would otherwise pass undetected.

Even small quantities of aged or OBA-contaminated flakes can cause visible discoloration, yellowing, or optical defects in the final recycled product. Removing these contaminants at the flake stage prevents costly quality failures downstream in extrusion and pelletizing.

Clean, contaminant-free PET flakes command significantly higher market prices and qualify for premium end-use applications such as food-contact packaging and bottle-to-bottle recycling, where strict clarity and color standards are required.

Removing aged and OBA-contaminated flakes before extrusion reduces batch-to-batch color variation, minimizes reprocessing steps, and supports more stable and predictable production runs.

By precisely targeting only the contaminated flakes for rejection, the system minimizes false rejects and maximizes the yield of valuable clean PET from every ton of input material.

Automates the detection and removal of challenging contaminants that are difficult or impossible for manual pickers to identify consistently, lowering labor costs and improving sorting reliability.

Delivers reliable, repeatable sorting performance across varying feed compositions, ensuring stable output quality even as the proportion of aged or OBA-containing material fluctuates in the input stream.

Specifications