Bonfiglioli & GreenBig

The recycling sector welcomes a successful new project, generated by the collaboration between Bonfiglioli and the French start-up GreenBig

Recycling and environmental sustainability have been the keywords that powered the partnership between Bonfiglioli and the GreenBig start-up company. During this collaboration, Bonfiglioli has drawn on its vast experience in the recycling sector, to help it to develop a completely tailor-made solution for this customer, who needed a shredder that could be integrated with the specifics of its project: a machine to recycle PET bottles.

The client

GreenBig is a circular economy start-up launched in the north of France which has developed a new economic model capable of recycling PET bottles using a special ground-breaking machine, part of a concept which can also be installed in public places, for example in supermarkets. Once mounted, it activates a sustainable economic cycle that also benefits users, thanks to a patented bottle densification technology carried out directly on site, enabling the storage of 3,500 bottles in less than 1 square metre of occupied space. This triggers numerous advantages in terms of: less emptying activities, lower maintenance, lower costs per square metre, and less need for transport and logistics.

The machine is based on the concept of sorting PET by colour, thus increasing the price/t and then transforming it into flex using a special shredder.

The need for a shredder suitable for integrating with this unusual mechanism was what led to the collaboration between Bonfiglioli and GreenBig.

The Challenge

GreenBig was searching for an innovative solution for its product concept, and decided that Bonfiglioli was the right partner for project implementation.

The search for an optimal solution in line with the customer's needs was initially extremely complex. During the concept development phase, Bonfiglioli presented the customer with a first prototype shredder, and this led to numerous tests before the best solution was identified. GreenBig needed to satisfy major specific requirements: the machine must work with domestic power supply (230/250 V), the shredder must be inserted in the smallest possible container and it must be as silent as possible.

Our Solution

To conceive and develop the current product, Bonfiglioli initiated an intense co-engineering activity, carried out in synergy with the customer: this produced a solution that directly connects the gearmotor with the shredder and, above all, that meets the required dimensions for the product. For this reason, an orthogonal gearbox was also used, and in part, a brushless one.

It was also crucial to minimize the cycle intakes, so as to reach the shredding goal of 1 bottle every 3 seconds: to achieve this, it was necessary to switch from "agile" to "active" in order to increase the capacity of the DC BUS.

To meet all these requirements, the Bonfiglioli single recycling machine was used, together with the following components:

3 01 L 1 FZ
W 63 UFC1
BMD 102
ACU 210
ETHERCAT

The customer’s satisfaction

“Our collaboration with Bonfiglioli was a fundamental factor in developing this project. In the end, their solution fully satisfied all our needs, both in terms of performance (times and energy performance), and on a technical level, i.e. compliance with the required measurements, which allowed us to integrate it perfectly with the system we had created.”