Balcan (UK), the award-winning electric lamp recycling specialist, has produced a new multipurpose recycling plant capable of processing all kinds and sizes of both whole and pre-crushed lamps.
The Multi Purpose Compact Lamp Recycler ((MPC4000) was developed from the company`s own original design which was recognised when the company won the Queen`s Award for Enterprise in 2006 for its ability to be used in conjunction with crushers. When mounted in lamp collection vehicles they allow up to five times more lamps to be carried when pre-crushed and loaded in vehicles than when lamps remain whole. This has obvious environmental and cost-reduction benefits.
Capable of accepting both whole and pre-crushed lamps fed from 45-gallon drums, which can hold an average of 600 x 4ft fluorescent tubes or their equivalent at an approximate rate of 8 drums per hour, the MPC4000 separates remarkably clean glass cullet from the debris. At the
same time, the mercury bearing phosphor powder is drawn through filters including one containing activated carbon to remove the mercury vapour from the air so it can be exhausted safely to the outside atmosphere. The MPC4000 produces clean aluminium end caps from fluorescent tubes or a mixture of plastic and metal components when mixtures of lamps are loaded.
The simple, uncomplicated and unique design of this unit is the subject of a new patent application and is an advance on more expensive
recyclers on the world market because it can handle and process a greater variety of newer types of lamps, which use a much higher proportion of plastic components which cannot be provided by other designs of recyclers, according to Balcan Engineering.
At an expected selling price of £135,000, there is no other plant capable of competing with it either on price or the quality of the cleanliness of the resultant glass cullet, according to Balcan.
At this price and with such versatility Balcan expects it will widen the market for recycling plants and enable many small companies to offer a competitive service.
Balcan is also reporting that it expects to have its own distiller for processing the mercury and phosphor powder used in most lamps.
Product directory
