Overview
Teacher Supervisor: Ms. Merlene Paik
Industrial Mentors: Ms. Oh Shu Xian, Ms Oh Chu Xian
The Capstone Project I have enbarked on is a project that is done in collaboration with Magorium. The project aims to optimise a plastic recycling machine and make it more efficient. As part of a team of 4 students, we are working on this project as part of our final year in SST.
The Problem
It is nearly impossible to travel anywhere without coming into contact with a plastic product. From single use plastic packaging to plastic containers, and products, they all end up in the trash sooner or later.
Plastic waste is a major problem, of the 900 million tonnes of plastic discarded in Singapore, only 6% is recycled and the rest is incinerated.
As a person with a 3D Printer, I have seen the amount of plastic waste that is generated from just my own testing and prototyping. This is a problem that needs to be solved and I believe that this project is a step in the right direction.
Plastic identification is the first step to properly value plastic resources. Most hard plastics are identifiable by the recycling symbol imprinted on their base, around the number
- 1 (PET)
- 2 (HDPE)
- 3 (PVC)
- 4 (LDPE)
- 5 (PP)
- 6 (PS)
- 7 (Other)
Although there are 7 types of plastic, only type 2 (HDPE) and type 5 (PP) can be used with the machine. These are food grade materials with the least risk to human health during production.
While these plastics are recyclable, most of the time, they are in states of contamination and are unable to be used for recycling.
The Machine
This is a CAD model of the machine, there are 3 main components:
-
Shredder
Shreds large pieces of hard plastic into smaller pieces to be melted in the extruder. -
Extruder
melts the plastic at high temperatures and extrudes into a Mould. -
Mould
Attaches onto the Extruder and shapes the molten plastic into a shape.