Characteristic of composites containing glass reinforced polyester waste
Mariola Jastrzębska, Wojciech Jurczak 1 Akademia Morska w Gdyni, Katedra Chemii i Towaroznawstwa Przemysłowego, ul. Morska 83, 81-225 Gdynia, Poland 2 Akademia Marynarki Wojennej, Instytut Podstaw Budowy Maszyn Okrętowych, ul. Śmidowicza 69, 81-103 Gdynia, Poland
Quarterly No. 1, 2008 pages 59-63
DOI:
keywords: material recycling, polyester composites, glass reinforced polyester waste
abstract Glass reinforced polyesters are used more extensively especially for transporting structures, vehicle and vessels. The polyesters are difficult to be recycled because the material is fully cured and it contains incorporated glass reinforcement. The curing process of composites is not reversible. Technical advantages of these composites (mainly great durability and resistance to environment) became a serious disadvantage during tests on their utilization. Several techniques of glass reinforced polyesters recycling do exist but they are not yet commercially available. The current disposal methods of polymer composites are landfill. It is difficult to solve the problem of glass reinforced polyesters recycling, so in connection with this problem we have decided to perform the research in this area. This study focuses on material recycling. The key issue of our project is to find the feasible end-use applications for the shredded recyclate. The wastes of the glass fibre reinforced cold-cured polyester laminates were ground in shredder (it contained cutting blades). The sizes of the scraps were 2030 mm. Recyclate was added to polyester resin in aim to produce new composites. The composites were fabricated by a hand lay-up process at 22C. In this paper some properties (density, the bending strength, the compressive strength) of the composites were investigated according to the Polish Standards. Glass reinforced polyesters waste composite, initially shredded into finer material, then can be applied as a filler or reinforcement in the new lightweight and low resistant composite products (building materials) like fencing, railing or panelling materials. Addition of recyclate allows reducing production cost as a result of lower weight of materials and make ready products easy to transport. Applying the recyclate as a filler will also be a good way of polymer composites utilization. It is a very important ecological aspect.