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In today's world of reduce, re-use and recycle the staff at KLA Plastics are committed to the ethos of customer satisfaction. We hope the images on this page will give you the visitor a clearer understanding of what we do at our purpose built factory here in N. Ireland. At KLA Plastics we take waste and scrap plastics which would normally go to landfill and reprocess them back into a commodity that is in great demand in the plastics industry.
Large bales or heavy reels of recycled plastic need to be made usable and the company use a guillotine to cut the items into easier handling sizes. Staff member Thomas is seen here sorting and re-sizing LDPE to be used in our crumbing machine. This material will eventually be used as part of a blend to produce BLK72 Granules for one of our Irish based customers. The
Melt Flow Index (MFI) of plastic is of critical importance. Each
blend of new material that is made is checked at regular intervals
to ensure that the correct MFI meets the needs of our customers.
This checking process is Production Manager Tony Wootton is seen here checking the MFI of a blend of PP M8 BLK before the main 3000KG blend is put through the extruder. If the Melt Index is incorrect the main blend has to be adjusted, to rectify the discrepancy and then retested before the full blend can be given the OK to run. KLA Plastics currently have two blenders in operation each with a capacity to hold up to 2500KG of reprocessed materials. Each blend is made up of various reprocessed materials and carefully weighed and checked for any contamination.
The
operation of the crumbing machine has become a skill in itself and
our operators take great pride in producing the finished product. Our
two extrusion machines run 24hrs each day Mon-Fri such is the demand
at present. After each new blend has been tested for the MFI and
found to be correct the blenders are emptied and put into large
metal bins. Billy Bo is seen here opening up one of the large bins to empty the blend into the hopper that will feed the material onto the screw that will feed the extruder.The blend is being carefull inspected by the operator to ensure no contamination is present. The temperature of each extruder is crucial to the smooth operation of each blend as it runs through themachine. Different materials requiredifferent melting temperatures and our operators adjust the temps to suit each blend.
Each of our extruders use a filter type operation that stops unwanted materials from entering the finished product. These filters are changed regularly through-out the run of the blend to ensure a clean and good product. After
the blend has passed through the extruder the melted product is
pushed through the head of the machine and the operator then feeds
the material into the cooling bath before it goes Extruder No 2 is seen here producing a batch of PP8 MR BLK. Notice how the melted material is being feed down into a cooling bath. This
melted material is then fed through a series of rollers and driers
before being turned into granules. These granules are then feed
into 25Kg bags and put on palletts for delivery to the customer.
The images below show some of the day-shift staff during a normal working day at KLA Plastics Ltd.
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Waste
plastic can come in all shapes and sizes. It is very important in
the recycling of these products that various types of plastics can
not be mixed. To avoid contamination each bale or delivery of new
material is sorted and made ready for use.
usually carried out by our shift supervisors and logged in the factory
records to trace any variance in our finished products. 
One
of the main ingredient's of each blend will come from processed
plastic that has gone through our crumbing machine. This machine
breaks down the reels, film and other recycled materials that are
put through it into small flakes. The crumber then heats this flake
to a temperature where it starts to melt causing the material inside
to form into plastic crumb. 
These
bins are then put on top of the shute that directs the blended materials
down into the screw of the extruder.
The
speed of the screw as it delivers the material into the extruder
also has to controlled to ensure a proper melt of all the material
inside the machine. The photograph on the left shows part of the
control panel of extruder No 2.
into the pelletiser to be cut into the correct size pellets
