Precious Plastic¶

Week One:¶

Objectives:

1- Literature review about plastic

2- Finding supplier and workshop to build the shredder and injection machines

The purpose out of this is to produce useful products by recycling used plastics.

Type of Plastics:¶

There are several plastics types. The table below summerize the shortlisted that we could use to make safe valuable products :

Type	Properties	Safety	Melting point	Common Use
PET	Lightweight, Impact resistant, Rigid/semi-rigid, Strong and stiff Water and oxide barrier, Good electrical properties	Mediume, Harmful fumes	260°C	Water bottels wrapping film, electrical fittings
HDPE	Inert, thermally stable, tough and high tensile strength cheap, high chemical resistance, electrical properties, waxy feel, good friction behaviour	Good	125°C	Pipes, toys, bowls, crates, packing film. HDPE is often used for food and drink containers, as well as milk bottles, motor oil, shampoo bottles, soap bottles, detergents, bleaches, toys and bottle caps
PP	Like PE but stronger, stuffer and higher temp and lower density, mechanical, thermal and electrical performance result in a low cost engineering plastic	Good	160°C	Structural parts, pipes, toys, chairs, kitchenware, DVD cases, packaging, films, textile, carpets, rope, netting used for products that get in contact with food and drink - tupperware, yoghurt boxes, syrup bottles
PS	Clear, glossy, hard, stiff. Pros: cheap, low mould shrinkage, good insulator, good on low temp	Medium. While burning PS, styrene can be released (toxic)	160°C	Toys, CD cases, light diffusers, electric housings, cutle

Machinery :¶

For the sake of producing useful things by recycling plastics we need to turn the plastic into small flakes using shredder so we can melt it then in injection and finally squeeze it in final product mould.

To build the shredder and the injection we contacted several metals companies to provide us with the stainless steel sheet that is going to cut in a workshop and soldered.

Shredder¶

The first step is to shred the plastic into small flakes so it could be easily turned into products, and that’s the function of the shredder.

How to build shredder machine¶

The sizes and blue prints were sent to the workshop to cut it and build the machine

Injection¶

After shredding the plastics it enters into a hopper to be heated then pressed in a mould to make an good product and this is injection’s process.

How to build injection machine¶

The sizes and blue prints were sent to the workshop to cut it and build the machine

Week Two¶

Objectives :

1- Follow up on the machines building

2- Set a project plan

Project Plan¶

Machines¶

My team and I went on a visit on March 20, 2022 to the workshop in New Island Contracting Co. which it is located at Askar to follow up the progress of bliding the machines