Press release submitted on behalf of TOMRA.
TOMRA Recycling featured its latest sorting innovations available to the plastics industry during NPE2024 in Orlando, Florida. Team members previewed TOMRA’s latest artificial intelligence (AI) technology, based on deep learning, available for cleaning recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) material streams. In addition, the company offered insights into the updates available on the recently introduced INNOSORT™ FLAKE as well as the AUTOSORT™ FLAKE sorting solutions.
TOMRA’s latest breakthrough AI technology to improve plastics sorting accuracy, GAINnext™ leverages deep learning capabilities to make it possible to sort objects which could not be separated by traditional methods. Combined with industry leading AUTOSORT™ technology, GAINnext™ classifies material based on sensor data and provides object recognition using an RGB camera to separate materials with high purity levels without compromising throughput speed.
One of the most recent applications for GAINnext™ aids in creating a pure recyclable PET fraction by removing difficult-to-detect plastic contaminants, such as multilayer packaging, to create a clean PET bottle stream. Leveraging AI, the PET cleaner application targets the separation of white opaque PET from clear and light blue PET, which, until now, was difficult to solve with traditional technology.
The latest in flake sorting
Delivering high-throughput purification of plastic flakes, the new INNOSORT™ FLAKE’s feature enhancements enable simultaneous flake sorting by polymer, color and
transparency, achieving unmatched quality with high throughput and maximum yield. Its advanced near-infrared (NIR) spectrometer detects polymers from contaminated infeed, so mixed plastics are sorted into clean PET, polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE) and other fractions for extrusion. Enhanced optics with changeable color background and dual-sided high-resolution cameras detect millions of colors to create single-color fractions.
For high-end applications like bottle-to-bottle recycling where contamination of the infeed material is low, but quality requirements are high, TOMRA Recycling offers the AUTOSORT™ FLAKE sorter. It features a powerful combination of NIR spectrometer, full color camera and metal sensor to deliver simultaneous material, color and metal detection and achieve both extremely high purity and stable throughput. A high sensitivity electromagnetic sensor detects and removes the smallest ferrous and non-ferrous metals contaminants down to 1 mm (0.04 in) with maximum precision.
The complete solution
Flake sorting efficiency is enhanced with consistent, quality plastic feed material. TOMRA Recycling team members will explain how the TOMRA AUTOSORT™ sets the stage for successful flake sorting by accurately presorting material at high throughput rates. Compact, highly flexible and upgradable, AUTOSORT™ combines the latest TOMRA technologies to deliver advanced accuracy for complex sorting tasks.
This includes TOMRA SHARP EYE™ technology, which increases light efficiency while maintaining the same energy consumption to improve the separation of difficult-to-target fractions. Patented advanced FLYING BEAM™ sensing technology offers better light efficiency to enable higher performance at lower costs. Its compact design enables flexible and easy installation, while the enhanced light signal efficiency results in improved detection.
TOMRA Recycling will also highlight how the TOMRA Insight platform turns sorting machines into connected devices that generate process data. Users can access this near-real-time data anywhere at any time via a secure connection with a user-friendly interface on desktops and mobile devices. It provides digital metrics like throughput, material distribution across the belt, accept and rejection rates, and more to give operators the critical operating data to optimize sorting performance.
More information on TOMRA Recycling’s full range of sensor-based sorting solutions can be found at https://www.tomra.com/en/waste-metal-recycling.
TOMRA Recycling Sorting
TOMRA Recycling Sorting designs and manufactures sensor-based sorting technologies for the global recycling and waste management industry to transform resource recovery and create value in waste.
The company was the first to develop advanced waste and metals sorting applications using high capacity near infrared (NIR) technology to extract the most value from resources and keep materials in a loop of use and reuse. To date, more than 9,000 systems have been installed in 100 countries worldwide.
TOMRA Recycling is a division of TOMRA Group. TOMRA was founded on an innovation in 1972 that began with the design, manufacturing and sale of reverse vending machines (RVMs) for automated collection of used beverage containers. Today, TOMRA is leading the resource revolution to transform how the planet’s resources are obtained, used and reused to enable a world without waste. The company’s other business divisions are TOMRA Food and TOMRA Collection.
TOMRA has approximately 105,000 installations in over 100 markets worldwide and had total revenues of about 12 billion NOK in 2022. The Group employs 5,000 globally and is publicly listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. The company headquarters are in Asker, Norway.
For further information about TOMRA, visit www.tomra.com and follow TOMRA Recycling Sorting on Facebook, X, LinkedIn and on Instagram.
