Diseño y construcción de un Extrusor de tornillo para la obtención de PELLETS de botellas plásticas de PET recicladas

Abstract

A Screw Extruder was designed and built to obtain pellets from recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottles at the Polytechnic School of Chimborazo, the equipment will operate in the laboratory of Unit Operations of the School of Chemical Engineering of the Faculty of Sciences of ESPOCH; to minimize environmental pollution. For the design of the equipment, engineering calculations were used, applying norms, rules, laws or established principles. For its construction and assembly, the following components were used: feed hopper, screw or screw, jacket, 220 v electrical resistances, 2 HP motor-reducer, cooling vat, recirculation pot, recirculation pump, control board and a base or support with a rectangular stainless steel structural profile. Once the extruder was built and assembled, 4 tests were carried out to validate it, resulting in an efficiency of 90% with a yield of 94% and the product obtained which are the pellets can be reused as raw material for other production processes such as the manufacture of plastic covers, textile industry, pillow stuffing, carpets, quilts and even upholstery for the automotive industry. Equipment such as extruders are useful to reduce the environmental impacts generated by PET plastic bottles. Therefore, the implementation of this production line is recommended in institutions where there is a large amount of consumption of plastic materials.