Recycling of Mixed Color Automotive Thermoplastics 981155
A method for recycling of mixed color automotive thermoplastic scrap into appearance automotive interior parts has been developed and shown to satisfy the following three requirements: 1) material performance 2) color appearance, and 3) economically sound. The technique developed is based on minimal separation of the colors into hues (groups of similar colors) and repigmenting to the desired color. The studies included computer formulations, laboratory verifications and plant runs. Plant runs were carried out to produce automotive interior doors (base level S-truck) with polypropylene (PP) regrind and B-pillar 325 parts with acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) regrind at the Delphi - Adrian plant. Two colors, ruby red and medium gray, were selected because they are the most difficult colors to match. The results of the plant runs demonstrated that color matching can be successfully achieved. The total color difference in CIELAB color space (DE) of the recycled automotive parts to GM color standards was less than 0.87 with compositions of 20% and 30% of a one hue dominant PP and ABS regrind fraction at less than 2% pigment loading. The recycled automotive parts also met other requirements for mechanical and physical properties specified by the GM standards including GM's UV resistance requirements.
Citation: Garrett, D., Bai, H., Gu, J., Gupta, U. et al., "Recycling of Mixed Color Automotive Thermoplastics," SAE Technical Paper 981155, 1998, https://doi.org/10.4271/981155. Download Citation
Author(s):
David L. Garrett, Hebi Bai, Jiren Gu, Umeshkumar Gupta, Jiri E. Kresta, Vahid Sendijarevic, Daniel Klempner
Affiliated:
University of Detroit Mercy
Pages: 11
Event:
International Congress & Exposition
ISSN:
0148-7191
e-ISSN:
2688-3627
Also in:
Design and Manufacture for the Environment-SP-1342
Related Topics:
Parts
Recycling
Drag
Thermoplastics
Doors
Waste disposal
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