In the face of mountains of waste, microplastics in anything and everything, negative eco-credentials and unmitigated climate change, taking sustainable action seems more crucial than ever. The textile industry is relying increasingly on recycling solutions, which is a sign that the sector is beginning to understand what is at stake. To name a shining example - in what is said to be a first, the man-made fibers segment of the Oerlikon Group covers the entire mechanical recycling chain, from preparing the recycled materials and producing the melt right through to the textured package. At the core of this process is the VacuFil solution from Barmag Brückner Engineering (BBE), an Oerlikon subsidiary. In addition to making light work of bottle-to-bottle and bottle-to-textile processes, this BBE solution is also able to process textile waste into chips and run textile production operations in line with the zero-waste philosophy.

When it comes to ensuring outstanding yarn quality, a stable and efficient spinning process with the minimum fluctuations possible is essential. The first step toward achieving this is reliably removing any impurities that could disrupt this process. The greatest challenge here is dealing with the varying qualities of the bottle flakes fed into the system, as the extrusion process struggles to compensate for these fluctuations. The VacuFil design avoids this problem with its large blending silos, which considerably reduce the differences in polymer viscosity, ensuring exceptional yarn and fabric quality. The VacuFil solution is connected upstream of a POY (partially oriented yarn) system from Oerlikon Barmag, which transforms the recycled melt into the high-quality filament yarn that Oerlikon customers have come to expect.

Oerlikon Barmag - a branch of Oerlikon Textile GmbH & Co. KG (42897 Remscheid, Germany)
Website: www.oerlikon.com