Influences of impurities in recycled plastics on properties of PIM sandwich panels

Abstract

Powder impression moulding (PIM) is a novel technology for manufacturing lightweight sandwich panels from plastics in powder form. The process is featured by its high tolerant to impurities or contaminants in the feedstock and thus requires much less materials segregation and cleaning operations when use recycled plastics. This paper investigate the influences of polymer impurities and soil contamination on structure and properties of PIM sandwich panels using compositions that simulate a PE-rich recycled plastic feedstock. It is demonstrated that the PIM process can accommodate considerable impurities (rPET residues or soil contamination) in a core dominated by LDPE/HDPE blendes. The variation of flexural properties can be predicted or controlled through monitoring of impurities. There exist significant scopes for reduction of the degree of sorting and cleaning in recycling systems by using lower grades of recyclates and for reduction of the associated costs and energy consumption.