Design and Construction of a PET Extrusion Machine for Production of Insulation Material

Abstract

Plastics are a major component of waste in the environment since the replacement of glass bottles and tin cans. Recycling of waste bottles is considered an appropriate and environmentally friendly route to stemming further pollution. This paper presents the design, fabrication and testing of a Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) plastic recycling machine for production of thermal insulation materials. An extruder consisting of the Archimedes screw is heated by the barrel band heaters to melt the crushed PET chips into molten polymer state. The molten polymer is pumped by a screw mechanism to produce thermal insulation materials at the exit of the spinneret die plate. The thermal insulation materials were tested for optimum recycling conditions, density test and water absorption test. The optimum conditions obtained during recycling process was at a speed of 30 rpm and melting temperature of 180^o C. Compressed air of 1.5 bars cooled the filaments adequately at the die exit. The total energy consumption during the recycling process was 0.586 KWh, with a mass flowrate of 360 g/hr. The density of the filaments obtained was 1362 kg/m³ and water absorption rate of 1.0 % for the filaments.