Recycling Off-Cuts and Rejected Foams at Selit North America

For over 40 years, Selit North America has specialized in extruding the foam layer beneath the flooring commonly found in households, offices, or buildings. In their extrusion line, they generate off-cuts from trimming rolls of foam, as well as rolls generated during transitions between different foam types they produce. In Commerce, GA, EPE and XPS foam sheets are extruded, and Runi plays an essential role in the recycling process for both materials.

In order to meet the demands for the different materials and high capacity that they needed to keep up, Selit wanted to take part in designing a solution to compact their rejected material. The compaction is an essential part in the recycling process, as the recycling equipment cannot receive the material fast enough due to the light foam state but needs to receive the material in a compacted state to work efficiently.

The optimal solution was achieved by utilizing a shredder to shred the high-density foam, moving it by airflow, and a customized RUNI solution to receive the shredded foam. This system uses two cyclones along with two RUNI machines, installed with an airtight input to avoid any material flying around. The robust installation is fully automated and requires minimal supervision.

 “From the start of machine design and system construction, we knew that Runi was the right partner. Off the shelf, their machines solved the issues we have been struggling with for years, but at the same price point as the competition. The innovative design, included features, and desire to create an integrated and custom solution for our recycling needs brought us together for a complicated system solution. The thoroughness of the entire system design process was also echoed in the installation, run off, and after sales support to ensure that all objectives were met.  We have a robust system we are proud of and look forward to our next project with Runi”.  Doug Brouillard, Director of Operations