Mixing PC/ABS Regrind: A Preliminary Study

摘要

The use of different grades of the same type of resin is not uncommon in automotive manufacturing facilities. As a consequence, the use of internal regrind becomes cumbersome due to increased material handling, storage and cross contamination possibility between the different grades of the same resin. The ability to combine the regrind streams would alleviate these consequences as well as promote the usage of the recycled resin within a given manufacturing facility versus recycling via outside sales or even landfill which is typical with mixed recyclate streams. In this study, recyclate of two different grades of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene and polycarbonate blend (PC/ABS) resins from different suppliers were evaluated. Various ratios of the two grades were evaluated where the blending occurred in both regrind and reprocessed/repelletized forms. Due to the nature of this study, certain preliminary properties were evaluated prior to moving forward with other plaque and/or part testing. The properties evaluated were melt flow, flexural modulus and izod impact strength at room temperature. The melt flow and flexural modulus values were evaluated for each ratio and revealed a linear relationship. The izod impact strength was evaluated at 50/50 blends of the two different grades initially, along with the corresponding controls, to detect possible incompatibility issues since the resin manufacturing process of the two prime PC/ABS resins differ. Since there were no drastic changes in the impact strength, further testing of the other ratios was not pursued. As expected, the mixing of the two different grades of PC/ABS recyclate for reuse back into the same or similar automotive components appears feasible and warrants further testing in situations where various grades of the same resins are used within a given manufacturing facility to promote internal recycling.