Investigation on effect of processing parameters on properties of recycled-pet composites using taguchi method

Abstract

Although plastics have remarkable impact on our culture, extensive consumption has led to post consumption disposal problems and adverse effect on environment. The dangerous impact on environment at every stage of their production, service and disposal has promoted recycling plastics for building better and healthier world. Moreover, recycled plastic is a cheaper source of material and help industries to cut down material cost. Poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PET) is one of the plastic that is disposed in abundance owing to heavy masses produced in beverage industries. One of the popular ways of recycling is thermo-mechanical technique owing to simplicity in the process, lower costs and damages to the environment. In the present work, recycled-PET (r-PET) is thermo-mechanically recycled by compression moulding and studied for their flexural strength and wear resistance, for its possible use as plastic gears in low-tech applications like toys. The r-PET is reinforced with fly ash cenospheres (FAC) that are low cost fillers having good mechanical properties. Taguchi methodology is adopted for experimental design and analysis of the results. The results points to the fact that proportion of FAC, moulding pressure and mould temperature are the major contributors for the strength and wear properties of r-PET/FAC composite. Further, Response Surface Methodology (RSM) is adapted to optimize the parameters for both strength and the wear rate. The contour plots show that around 5.4-7% of FAC content with 11.6 - 14.4 MPa of pressure is the optimum parameter for both flexural strength and specific wear rate. The analysis is purely on macro mechanical front with an aim to obtain totally recycled low cost material. Copyright 2013 by Aurora Flight Sciences.