Two Tables, One Interface

The crusher table is published by model, with rotor diameter, power, blade count, capacity and feed opening:

The washer table is published the same way, with rotation speed, capacity, drum diameter and water use:

Read separately, each table looks like a shopping list. Read together, they are one interface with two variables: how much passes per hour, and in what size and shape. Both pages carry the same disclaimer: crusher capacity depends on material and feed size, washer capacity and water use vary with contamination. That is why the handoff has to be designed rather than ordered.

The Washer Sets the Window

The friction washer page is specific about what it wants to receive, and gives both sides of the reason in one line: material should be pre-crushed to typically 10-30 mm; too coarse reduces cleaning, too fine complicates separation. That is a window, not a target.

The coarse side is about surface contact. Friction washing works through mechanical contact between the rotor paddles, the material and the perforated screen, with spray bars carrying the released contamination away. A 60 mm chunk of HDPE presents little surface for its mass, and oil or adhesive inside a fold never meets a paddle. The fine side is about separation downstream: once flake is small enough it stops behaving like a distinct particle in the float-sink stage — it follows the water and carries into places the process does not want it.

So the crusher is not being asked for small flakes, but for flakes inside a band the washing stage can work with — which is how the screen column should be read.

Reading the Screen Column Backwards

The crusher page publishes screens of 3, 5, 8, 10 and 15 mm and notes that output typically lands in the 5-20 mm range. Note the direction: the screen is the smallest dimension the flake can pass, the output is what actually comes out, and the two are not the same number. A 10 mm screen does not produce 10 mm flakes but flakes that got through a 10 mm hole, which for film and thin-walled material means elongated, curled shapes whose longest dimension can sit well above the hole size.

In a washing line that pushes the useful part of the range upwards. The 3 mm and 5 mm screens belong to applications that want fine output — granulator feed, densifying, a specification written around small particles. On a line whose next stage asks for 10-30 mm, a 3 mm screen argues with the machine behind it. The 10 mm and 15 mm screens keep flake inside the window, and the choice between them is settled by material: thin film and woven bags behave differently from pipe and sheet off the same screen.

Fines are the fraction that never becomes product: they load the rinse water and end up in the settling and filtration stage of the closed-loop system. Our post on crusher screen selection covers hole geometry and screen material; the point here is narrower — in a washing line, screen size is a washing decision as much as a crushing one.

Pairing by Band, Not by Model Number

Throughput is where the tables line up directly. Comparing published capacity bands, three natural pairings appear:

Notice that the model numbers do not line up: there is no FW-600, so a PS-600 pairs upward. The pairing follows the capacity band, and in each case the washer's band starts at or above the crusher's upper figure, so the washing stage is not the bottleneck when the crusher runs at the top of its range. The reverse arrangement — a washer whose band sits under the crusher's band — is the most common way a line ends up running below its rated output, because the crusher carries the visible motor and the obvious number, while the washer quietly governs the pace.

Two caveats come straight from the pages. Crusher capacity depends on material and feed size: a PS-600 will not do 1,200 kg/h on bulky whole bottles and pre-shredded film alike. Washer capacity and water use vary with contamination level: soil-heavy film needs more rinse water and more dwell than clean post-industrial scrap at the same tonnage. Pick the pairing from the middle of the overlap, then confirm at the trial.

How Many Washers, and Why the Answer Is Not One

The washer page states that small lines use one unit, while larger or heavily contaminated lines use two or three in series to reach the required cleanliness. That is the cleanliness target expressed as hardware: one washer gives one pass of mechanical contact and one rinse, and where the output must meet a specification written around residual adhesive, oil or soil, one pass may not be enough regardless of chamber length.

A second washer with its own spray rinse gives the released contamination somewhere to go before the next contact pass. Washer count also changes the upstream requirement: each unit adds dwell and handling, so the crusher's screen should not be pushed finer "to help the washers" — washers are helped by shape and rinse, not by fines.

The heated-liquor question belongs to the same decision. The page notes that for oily material heated wash liquor improves results, and that whether heat is needed is confirmed in a material test. Heat is a property of the contamination, not of the machine, and it interacts with the water band in the table, which is published for the cold case.

Shape, Not Just Size: The Blade Profile Layer

Above the screen sits the rotor and its blades, and the crusher page matches blade geometry to material: V-type for film and woven bags at high throughput; step type for sheet, pipe and board, where crushing force matters; claw type for PET bottles and hard plastic, efficient with easier blade changes. The page also publishes the maintenance rhythm — clean the chamber each shift, inspect blades weekly, grease bearings monthly. A worn blade is a shape problem before it is a throughput problem, because a rounded edge tears rather than cuts.

Shape matters to the washer because surface is what friction acts on. A flat, freshly cut flake presents more face per gram than a curled or torn one, and a torn one produces the fines the separation stage then has to deal with. So the crusher is specified against the material twice: the screen sets size, the blade sets shape. The PS-series page also publishes the design points that keep this working — SKD-11 blade material, a water-cooled bearing housing, an anti-blocking chamber — and one hard limit: the crusher is not designed for metal or stone, so metal removal belongs upstream.

What the Handoff Looks Like in a Real Line

Follow a PET bottle stream through the pair. Bottles arrive baled, are de-baled and de-labeled, then enter the crusher — claw-type blades, a 10 or 15 mm screen, a PS-600 if the line is sized around a tonne per hour. The flake leaves in the upper part of the published 5-20 mm range, inside the washer's 10-30 mm window. The FW-1000 takes it at 1,000-1,500 kg/h with 6-8 m³/h of water, strips adhesive residue and soil against the perforated screen, and passes it to dewatering and drying.

Now change one input and watch the handoff move. Feed the same line heavily soiled agricultural film: the screen stays coarse, the blade profile changes to V-type, the washer may need a second unit and heated liquor, and water use moves to the top of its band. The crusher's published capacity does not change, but the practical figure does, because film's bulk density means the same model handles fewer kilograms per hour. Neither table says this; the two pages do.

What to Send With the Enquiry

A crusher-and-washer enquiry that can be answered in one round includes:

• Material and form — bottles, film, woven bags, sheet, pipe or mixed; this selects the blade profile before any number is discussed.
• Contamination — soil, oil, adhesive, sand, metal; it sets washer count, rinse intensity and whether heat is needed.
• Target flake size and its reason — what the granulator or the end user accepts, not a preference.
• Required hourly output at the output end — the figure that decides which capacity band the pair is built from.
• Water and space constraints — the published washer bands run from 2-4 m³/h to 8-12 m³/h, and a closed-loop system with settling, filtration and treatment changes what the site needs.

With those five answers, screen, blade profile, crusher model and washer model stop being four separate choices and become one configuration. Figures beyond the published tables are confirmed per project — the tables are the reference, the material is the decision.

Frequently Asked Questions