What Makes WEEE Plastics a Distinct Stream

WEEE housings are not household packaging waste with a different shape. They are engineering plastics — the published material fit covers ABS, HIPS/PS, PP, PA and PC in housings, inner liners, drawers and structural parts — and they arrive with attachments that no other stream carries in the same concentration: screws, metal inserts, foam, rubber seals, dust and printed labels. Each attachment attacks a different part of your economics. Metal damages blades and contaminates the fraction; foam and rubber seals survive a casual wash and reappear as defects in the regranulate; printed labels discolor the flake.

The published output promise for the line is wash flakes separated by polymer group, ready for granulation or compounding. That wording matters. A buyer of engineering-plastic regrind is not purchasing "plastic flake"; they are purchasing a polymer grade with a defined color and contamination ceiling. Everything in the line design serves that end: metal out before it reaches the blades, size reduction under control, washing that actually lifts dust and foam residue, and a separation stage that keeps ABS apart from PS and PP.

The Published Process: Metal First, Size Second, Separation Last

The published process sequence on the product page has six stages:

The headline decision is stage two. The published FAQ asks it directly — why remove metal before crushing? — and answers it plainly: screws and inserts damage blades and contaminate the plastic fraction, so metal removal sits ahead of the crusher. Run the sequence the other way and you pay twice, once in blade wear and once in manual picking of metal-flecked flake downstream. The line page also notes that polymer separation scope (density, electrostatic or optical) depends on the housing mix and is confirmed after a material study, which is the honest way to put it: a fridge-heavy mix and a small-appliance mix do not need the same separator train.

Size Reduction: Shredder, Then Crusher

Bulky housings do not go straight into a granulator. The published machine list puts shredding, crushing and washing together, selected by housing size and polymer mix. For whole appliances and large parts, a D-series single shaft shredder takes the feed down first. The published D-series data runs from the D-600 at 22 kW with a 500×400 mm feed opening and 300-500 kg/h, up to the D-1200 at 55 kW with a 1,000×800 mm feed opening and 1,000-1,500 kg/h. Alloy steel blades carry a 3-6 month inspection interval depending on material, and the screen is replaceable so output size can be re-set as the mix changes.

After the shredder, the PS-series crusher sets the flake size the rest of the line works with. Published models run from the PS-300 at 15 kW and 150-300 kg/h to the PS-800 at 75 kW and 1,200-2,000 kg/h, with interchangeable screen options of 3, 5, 8, 10 and 15 mm; output typically lands in the 5-20 mm range depending on material. Blade material is SKD-11 with a water-cooled bearing housing and an anti-blocking chamber design. Why does flake size deserve its own stage of attention? Because washing efficiency and granulator performance both depend on particle size — a flake that is too large keeps contamination pockets sealed inside, and one that is too fine dewateres poorly and carries moisture into the granulator.

Washing and Dewatering the Flake

Post-consumer housings carry dust, foam residue and labels that a rinse will not move. The published washing stage is friction washing: in the FW-series friction washer, high-speed friction between rotor and plastic strips adhered contamination from flake surfaces, and high-pressure spray bars carry it away. The series is published from FW-500 at 15 kW, 500 rpm and 300-500 kg/h, up to FW-1200 at 55 kW, 800 rpm and 1,500-2,000 kg/h, with material pre-crushed to roughly 10-30 mm. For heavily soiled appliance plastics, running two or three washers in series is the published recommendation rather than one oversized unit.

After washing and density separation, water has to come off mechanically. The VD-series vertical dewatering machine is published at a dewatering rate of 95% or higher, from VD-500 at 7.5 kW and 300-500 kg/h up to VD-1200 at 30 kW and 2,000-3,000 kg/h. Drying after mechanical dewatering then only has to remove what the centrifuge could not, which keeps thermal energy per tonne down and the flake within the moisture window your granulator accepts.

Reference Line Configurations

The appliance page publishes the LVKE washing-line series as the reference envelope for the washing section, with metal removal added ahead of crushing as standard on appliance projects:

Read this as the envelope for the washing line itself, not as a turnkey appliance plant figure. The shredder and crusher that condition the feed, and the metal-removal stage ahead of them, sit outside these totals; the product page states that polymer separation scope is confirmed after a material study rather than bundled into a fixed number. Treat the table as the starting frame for a conversation about your housing mix, not a quotation.

Polymer Separation: Designed In, Not Bolted On

The most consequential engineering choice in an appliance plastics line is how far to take polymer separation. Density separation splits the floating and sinking groups; where the mix demands more, electrostatic or optical sorting is added. The published FAQ is explicit that different polymers can run on one line, but the separation scope has to be designed in from the start. Retrofitting separation onto a line that was sized only for crushing and washing usually means reworking conveyance and drying around the new machines.

Dry pre-separation also has a place upstream of washing. Where the plant handles mixed fractions with film, paper labels and light impurities, a horizontal air separator lifts the light fraction out before the wet stages; the published WX series is rated at 92% or higher separation efficiency depending on material, moisture and damper settings, and the page notes that material moisture should generally stay below about 10% for the separation to hold. Keeping light contamination out of the wash bath extends the interval between water-circuit maintenance and reduces the load on the friction stage.

Matching the Line to Your Housing Mix

The honest answer to "what will this cost and produce" is that it depends on the mix, and the published pages treat that dependency openly. The configuration questions that decide the design are concrete: what share of the feed is fridge liners versus small-appliance housings; how much metal arrives attached rather than loose; which polymer grades your buyers will actually pay a premium for; and whether the plant needs electrostatic sorting or whether density separation covers the mix. The product page's closing instruction is to send your housing mix and target polymer output — which is the right order of operations, because a material study is what converts the published series data into a line you can bank on.

For operators expanding from general plastic work into WEEE, the staged route is also the practical entry: the shredder, crusher and washing machines in this line are the same families used in other rigid-plastic routes, so a plant can add the appliance-specific stages — metal removal and polymer separation — as the WEEE feed contract materializes rather than speculatively.

Frequently Asked Questions