Eliminate All Barrier Bottles: Stable Yellowness for Effortless High-Quality Clear PET Flakes

In the recycled PET flake washing industry, stable control of yellowness has long been a critical pain point for manufacturers. Faced with the growing variety of barrier bottles in the market, traditional sorting processes struggle to consistently keep yellowness below 2000 ppm—leaving manufacturers in a dilemma. Overly rejecting suspected yellowish flakes to maintain quality leads to raw material waste and rising costs; relaxing rejection standards, however, results in volatile yellowness and unguaranteed product quality. This long-standing technical bottleneck has forced numerous PET flake washing plants to endure dual pressures: unstable yellowness and low yield of high-quality clear PET flakes (3A Grade clear PET flakes in China).

Industry Pain Point: Blind Spots in Traditional Sorting Methods

Currently, most PET flake washing plants control yellowness through traditional sorting—using fluorescent sensors to identify de-labeled barrier bottles. Yet only a tiny fraction of barrier bottles exhibit fluorescent reactions, leading to extremely low recognition accuracy. To manage yellowness, plants are forced to reject potentially yellowing bottles at the front end, wasting resources and reducing 3A Grade yield.

DATABEYOND’s Technological Breakthrough: Stable Yellowness for Effortless 3A Grade

Addressing this industry challenge, DATABEYOND launches its Barrier Fluorescent Aging 3D Optical Sorter—integrating dual sensors (BARRIER spectral sensor and FLUO fluorescent aging sensor) to achieve precise sorting of barrier bottles, heavily aged bottles, high-fluorescence bottles, slightly aged bottles, and low-fluorescence bottles.

· The BARRIER spectral sensor is specially developed for the unique spectral curves of barrier bottles, delivering over 98% sorting accuracy for de-labeled barrier bottles.

· The FLUO fluorescent aging sensor accurately identifies heavily aged, high-fluorescence, slightly aged, and low-fluorescence bottles.

(Note: Sensors can be activated independently to ensure stable and controllable yellowness.)

This innovative sorter transforms yellowness from unpredictable to stable and controllable. While keeping yellowness within limits, it enables the appropriate inclusion of slightly aged bottles, low-fluorescence bottles, oil bottles, and adhesive bottles into 3A Grade feedstock—boosting 3A yield significantly.

Take Zhejiang Hengxin PET Flakes Washing Plant's facility as a case in point: After adopting DATABEYOND’s barrier fluorescent aging 3D optical sorter, its yellowness has stabilized below 2000 ppm, with 3A Grade yield consistently above 45% (peaking at 50%). This breakthrough adds dozens of RMB in net profit per ton of flakes for the plant, turning technological upgrading into tangible profit growth.

Stable and controllable yellowness is not only a key milestone in the flake industry’s technical upgrading but also a critical driver of manufacturers’ competitiveness. Moving forward, DATABEYOND will continue to leverage its expertise and technological innovation to lead the widespread adoption of global high-end intelligent sorting technology, accelerating the arrival of the intelligent era in the global renewable resources industry.