AUTOMOTIVE | INNOVATION


Recycling company ACI Plastics participated in the post-consumer paint removal trial with ELV bumpers provided by an ISRI member. Scott Melton, ACI President, reported that from the 2,513 pounds of post-consumer automotive bumpers it received, and after dismantling the parts, ACI was only able to recover 1,269 pounds. The company ground the suitable bumper parts, removed the paint and pelletised the material. ACI did not add any materials or additives to the post-consumer paint removed TPO and the finished product met the company’s specification for paint-removed TPO to be used in Class A applications. Ultra-Poly Corp, a plastics recycler-compound-


er, also evaluated a bumper bale sourced from a participating ISRI scrap yard. After producing recycled pellets, the company injection moulded flex and tensile bars and plaques for testing. Tensile strength, flexural modulus, notched Izod impact tests were performed. Among Ultra-Poly’s conclusions, it said: bales could be fairly easily handled and processed; the degree of contamina- tion was manageable; mechanical and physical properties appeared to be good in spite of known contamination with low levels of ABS; the appear- ance of moulded parts was somewhat “pocked” due to residual paint and non-TPO contamination; the pelletised material would be useful for many potential applications where smooth, high gloss finish is not necessary; the material could poten- tially be used also as a compounding component to improve impact strength and stiffness of other recycled streams. Technical Process and Engineering Inc (TPEI), which manufactures continuous mixer compound- ing equipment, processed chipped material on a TPEI FRE Continuous Mixer. The company said: “The TPO was fed with a volumetric feed auger under an un-agitated storage hopper. Minimal manipulation was needed to maintain a consistent feed into the machine. When material enters the mixer it is conveyed, densified, and melted along the forward section of the rotors. Once the polymer is melted the paint is dispersed with the aid of a mixing dam. Volatiles and moisture are able to exit the machine through a vent port and managed by facility dust collection. Once processing is com- plete the material exits the mixer and is fed into a 10:1 l/d hot melt extruder and conveyed to a Gala underwater pelletising system.” Additives group Milliken received a sample of


recycled bumper TPO from Geo-Tech and ran experiments in an extruder using three DeltaMax Performance Modifier masterbatches: m100 Melt Flow Modifier, a200 All Purpose Modifier and i300


www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com


Impact Enhancer. It prepared “salt and pepper” blends, and pre-compounded these in an 18mm twin-screw extruder at standard PP processing conditions. The resulting compounds were mould- ed into ASTM flex bars for testing. Milliken said that using 0.5% DeltaMax m100 Melt Flow Modifier, the MFR increased by 38% while maintaining impact strength at 8 ft-lb/in. Using DeltaMax i300 Impact Modifier, it was able to improve impact resistance up to 20% while retain- ing similar MFR (15 vs. 16 for the control). The company concluded: “The bumper resin contains a considerable amount of rubber and though impact and melt-flow can be further improved, we suggest blending the bumper resin with other resin to create high melt flow and high impact resins that are not readily available in the market. The target markets can include housewares, lawn and garden, roofing, industrial bulk containers, and automotive.” Noble Polymers was another project participant involved in testing. “The properties of the material were very close to what we would see from a recycler,” said Meagan Marko, product line man- ager, speaking at the Plastics Industry Association’s ReFocus event. “We saw a lot of promise in the material and we think if the collection and the stream can be scaled up, then there will be a lot of use for it in the market.”


CLICK ON THE LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION: � www.plasticsindustry.org � www.isri.org � www.aciplastics.com � www.ultra-poly.com � www.tpei.com � www.milliken.com � www.noblepolymers.com


July/August 2019 | PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD 33


Above: Used bumper bales were evaluated by project members


PHOTO: ACI PLASTICS


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40