Sustainability 11. October 2024

Transparent, thermoplastic materials such as PMMA, PC or PS play a particularly important role in the field of technical plastics processing. In addition to their traditional use for numerous applications, the use of high-performance polymers such as SMMA and COP/COC, some of which have been newly developed, has led to numerous new applications in medical technology and optical technologies. Starting with the actual injection molding process, mastering material conditioning is particularly important for the manufacture of high-tech products made from transparent plastics. The smallest defects such as specks, streaks, milky surfaces or flow lines are immediately recognizable in optical components and cause rejects. In addition to contour defects, these defects and foreign bodies in plastic optics also have a negative effect on the internal properties such as transmission and refraction and therefore on the optical functionality of the product.

The use of dust-free plastic pellets of impeccable quality is therefore a minimum requirement in order to avoid production downtime and a high level of rejects. Although the optical plastic pellets specially developed for the market already have special purity and dust-free grades, there are also fluctuations between production batches. Furthermore, in-house material supply at injection molding companies is often decentralized from storage silos and requires longer transport routes via pipelines. A dust-tight design of the material conveyor system and abrasion-free transportation of the plastic granulate cannot always be guaranteed.