Screening recycled glass granules

Altro expand environmentally-friendly flooring manufacture facility with help of vibratory sieve for recycled glass

Founded in 1919, Altro supplies safety flooring and wall cladding solutions worldwide. The company pioneered the world’s first safety flooring recycling system, and with sales subsidiaries across the globe, produce over 5.4 million square metres of safety flooring each year. Altro has been expanding its Hertfordshire operations for a number of years, increasing the capacity of their flooring production facilities. With a new product range of safety flooring being developed, a high-capacity recycled glass sieving solution was required.

Recycled glass granules are one of the materials used to increase the hardness of the flooring, adding to its robust safety features. In addition, the use of recycled glass conforms to Altro’s forward-thinking sustainability plans. Before the glass is fed into the flooring, it is passed through a sieving system via a hopper where oversize particles are removed, leaving the fine glass particles needed. The material of the correct particle size is then added to the product line.

An onsite trial was arranged for a 600mm diameter Russell Compact Sieve® to be installed within the new processing line, where staff could monitor the effectiveness and suitability of the machine. Sieving recycled glass during the trial proved very successful. “It was important for us to be able to trial the sieve at our facility prior to purchase. It allowed us to put the machine through the toughest conditions and it needed to succeed to ensure that product quality would not be compromised,” says Richard Holt, Manufacturing Shift Team Leader.

The Russell Compact Sieve® is a versatile check screener ideal for high capacity screening of recycled materials. The rubber suspension system of the Russell Compact Sieve®, when compared to spring mounted sieves, provides optimum transmission of vibration to the mesh surface providing increased sieving accuracy and higher throughput per unit mesh area. Another key feature is the ease of dismantling. “We needed a system that would allow our operators to easily dis-assemble the machine for cleaning,” explains Holt. The quick release clamping system provides tool free dis-assembly of the sieve deck. This allows cleaning to be undertaken quickly and easily, reducing valuable production downtime.

The compact sieve design enabled Altro to easily mount the sieve below the hopper, with material passing straight through to storage once sieved. With a head height less than half that of a traditional sieving machine, the sieve fits neatly into the new production plant without requiring excessive headroom, and provides a durable solution for this eco-friendly production line into the future. “Our long relationship with Russell Finex has been cemented with excellent high quality machinery and aftermarket support they provide. We would certainly recommend them to others in the industry” concludes Holt.