Students of Novosibirsk State Technical University (NSTU) are developing a compact complex for plastic recycling. The project is aimed at reducing waste and producing finished products from recyclables.
"We came up with this idea by accident. We were working on another 3D printing project, and we ran out of plastic. I went to order a new reel and on the way I saw a garbage truck dumping out a whole container of plastic bottles — all of it goes to the landfill, mixing with other garbage. It clicked in my head: I'm going to buy a kilogram of plastic, and here are free raw materials that are being dumped in tons. In a couple of weeks, the guys and I immersed ourselves in the topic, studied how plastic is recycled, and came up with the concept of a portable installation so that we could take waste not to the factory, but turn it into useful material right in our garage or workshop," said Yaroslav Skorobogatov, the project's design engineer who is a student at the Faculty of Aircraft of NSTU-NETI.
The principle of operation of the device is similar to that of an industrial processor, but in miniature and with simplified configuration and control. In the crusher, bottles, old housings or defective parts are turned into homogeneous crumbs, which are then fed into the extruder. There, the plastic melts, is thoroughly mixed and squeezed out through a nozzle. Then there is a fork in the road. If you need a rod for a 3D printer, the mass passes through a cooling device, and then is wound into a coil. If raw materials are needed for casting, the melt is either immediately fed into a small injection mold, or formed into granules for further use. The system has been made modular so that it can be adapted to different types of plastics and tasks.
"A number of tasks are being practically solved. For example, a workshop can recycle waste into a new filament, and a small production can reduce dependence on suppliers and raw material costs. In fact, it is a tool for creating small, local recycling cycles right on the spot," adds Yaroslav Skorobogatov.
Currently, the development is at the stage of a laboratory prototype. The testing stage is underway: the shredding of various types of plastic (PP, PET, PLA, PETG) is being tested on a homemade shredder. The students have applied for a grant to create a full-fledged complex and are registering a patent for software for its management. It is planned to make the software so simple and intuitive that one module can remotely control the entire process, and users can understand the management without special training.