Said to be the world’s first thermal fines agglomerator, the HotCooler allows producers of powder coatings and toner to re-feed “unwanted” fine dust directly, quickly and easily as chips or flakes back into the production process, thereby significantly reducing the cost of materials, saving disposal costs and ensuring higher process reliability, says the manufacturer. The thermal fines agglomerator is nicknamed HotCooler because of the way it works. After the extrusion melting process, the cooling and solidification of the viscous mass, which is processed into flakes or chips, takes place. The chips are ground to obtain final product, and this produces fines (less than 30–50 µm). The HotCooler melts and agglomerates these fines in one closed process step to form an amorphous, viscous mass, which is then cooled (in the same system) to be returned to the grinding process. — BBA Innova AG, Aarau, Switzerland
A thermal fines agglomerator for powder coatings
| By Chemical Engineering