Flake Sorter for Simultaneous Separation By Color, Polymer, Transparency

Tomra’s Innosort Flake sorting machine is aimed at enabling recyclers to meet demand for higher quality recyclate by providing better value recovery from mixed waste streams. Innosort Flake uses a near-infrared (NIR) spectrometer to identify flakes of different polymer types, enabling recovery of recyclables from contaminated infeed.

Mixed plastic fractions that have been shredded and washed can be sorted into clean fractions of PET, PP and PE, and other materials that meet quality requirements for extrusion and the creation of postconsumer recycled (PCR) content.

The machine also features optical sorting with dual-sided, high-resolution cameras and a changeable color background. According to the company, the new system is capable of detecting millions of colors and creating single-color fractions. The high-contrast imaging is capable of differentiating white opaque and natural, transparent and translucent flakes.

The Innosort Flake comes with up to four chutes and a changeable illumination background. This flexibility makes it possible to run multiple sorting and recovery steps in a single machine, thereby reducing time and material handling.

Tomra is also offering its cloud-based data monitoring service, Tomra Insight, as an add-on. Tomra Insight provides both data analysis and real-time monitoring. The data analysis functionality supports process optimization and predictive maintenance.