Experimental analysis on shredder for recycling thermoplastics using injection moulder

The current work mainly focused on analyzing the performance of plastic crushers designed and fabri-cated as an alternative to traditional impact crushers. The operating mechanism of the injection molding machine combined with the shredder consists of two phases: cutting the plastic using a double-edged blade, then loading the shredded plastic into the hopper and pressing it against the desired mold. For a safer design, the blades were designed based on PET materials as they have higher tensile strength (61.61 MPa) compared to other plastic materials. The time required to shred the plastic was directly pro-portional to the thickness of the plastic material and the type of plastic material used. For polyethylene terephthalate (PET) with thicknesses of 0.25 mm and 1.5 mm, the cutting time required for the shredder was found to be 11 s and 21 s, respectively. The calculated shear force and shaft torque per blade appeared to be 7.22 N and 108.3 Nm, respectively. It was observed that the torque required to cut the plastic with this shredder was lower than that of the impact crusher. As a result, the overall mechanical complexity and cost of grinding are reduced.Copyright (c) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Confer-ence on Thermal Analysis and Energy Systems 2021.

Automated summary

The research mainly focused on analyzing the performance of plastic crushers designed as alternatives to traditional impact crushers. The operating mechanism of the injection molding machine combined with the shredder involves cutting the plastic with double-edged blades and then loading the shredded plastic into the hopper and pressing it against the desired mold. The blades, designed using PET materials, reduce mechanical complexity and grinding cost while having higher tensile strength. The cutting time required for shredding the plastic is directly proportional to the thickness and type of plastic material used.