Influence of Recycled ABS Added to Virgin Polymers on the Physical, Mechanical Properties and Molding Characteristics

Abstract

Reuse of recycled polymers is steadily increasing. In this study, two different ABS virgin materials are considered. Then, blends of varying proportions of ABS recycled resins (0–50%), obtained from the gate and runner materials of products, was added to virgin resin to investigate the effect of various compositions of virgin ABS and recycled polymers on the physical and mechanical properties of the final blend. Three different rib and closure organization of boss of the reinforcement structures were designed and injection molded under blends of varying proportions of the ABS recycled resins to do the torsion test by Air-Torsion tools. In addition, molding characteristics were also examined. The results show that there is no obvious effect of recycled ABS percentage (by weight) on the tensile strength, elongation at yield, flexural strength, flexural modulus, and impact strength. However, the torsion strength for rib and closure organization of boss of the reinforcement structures decrease with increasing recycled ABS weight percentage. On the other hand, hardness, glass transition temperature, and melting flow index of recycled ABS increase with as the percentage (by weight) of recycled material increase. The impact strength was found to vary with the recycled ABS loading. The injection pressure decreases with increasing the content of recycled resin under some specified molding conditions.

Keywords:

• ABS
• Mechanical property
• Molding characteristics
• Recycled polymers
• Virgin resin