Nowadays, more than 13 million-ton plastics are produced in Japan that are used in various industrial fields. There are three main well-known methods for plastic recycling. The purpose of each method includes material recycling, chemical recycling or thermal recycling (energy recovery) of plastics waste. However, new processes are continuously being developed for recycling of plastics waste. Especially, material recycling is considered a simple process, whereas, re-pellet process for wasted plastics is too difficult and unable to reproduce plastics that have the strength and the durability characteristics similar to virgin plastic materials.
Recently, plastic alloy process, especially those that employ a mixture of liquid crystal polymer as dispersant phase for fibril phenomena, has been focused on as a new plastic producing technology in order to have better characteristics such as strength, durability and ability to be recycled.
In this study, the strength and recyclable characteristics of plastic alloy materials are investigated using polycarbonate and polypropylene as the matrix plastics, as well as three kinds of liquid crystal polymer as fibril dispersant.
The experimental results of measurement of tensile strength, charpy impact and recycle times of various plastic alloys are summarized as follows,
(1) The plastic alloy that is used with polycarbonate as matrix plastic and novaccurate as a liquid crystal polymer has a higher tensile strength compared to other alloy materials. This is due to the fact that a fibril phenomenon was observed in this plastic alloy.
(2) In case of a mixture of polycarbonate and novaccurate, the recycled plastic alloy processed by single-shaft extruding machine exhibited a higher strength and recyclables property than the one processed by double-shaft extruding machine.
(3) Strength characteristics of plastic alloy materials by polycarbonate and novaccurate decreased with recycling times, as the reagent of the solubility phase was mixed with alloys.
(4) If the injection-molding machine is directly employed for the plastic alloy without extruding machine, a higher strength of plastic alloy could be expected similar to the one of grass fiber plastic (FRP).
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