Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Engineering Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 10 of 10

Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Development Of High-Performance Fiber Cement: A Case Study In The Integration Of Circular Economy In Product Design, Parinya Chakartnarodom, Sarunya Wanpen, Wichit Prakaypan, Edward A. Laitila, Nuntaporn Kongkajun Sep 2022

Development Of High-Performance Fiber Cement: A Case Study In The Integration Of Circular Economy In Product Design, Parinya Chakartnarodom, Sarunya Wanpen, Wichit Prakaypan, Edward A. Laitila, Nuntaporn Kongkajun

Michigan Tech Publications

A new fiber cement (FC) is designed with the integration of circular economy (CE) concepts, in particular a product that is recyclable yet maintains performance. The FC samples were prepared from the mixtures of ordinary Portland cement (OPC), sand, and cellulose fibers, and required an inclusion compound (IC) and water. From the heat of hydration tests, the most effective IC, IC1, was prepared from lithium silicate, sodium thiocyanate, alkylbenzene sulfonate, and hydrochloric acid. The FC samples were recycled by crushing and grinding, then used as sand replacement in varying amounts to produce new FC samples. The results from the mechanical …


Soil-Cement Bricks Produced From Local Clay Brick Waste And Soft Sludge From Fiber Cement Production, Nuntaporn Kongkajun, Edward A. Laitila, Pitcharat Ineure, Wichit Prakaypan, Benya Cherdhirunkorn, Parinya Chakartnarodom Dec 2020

Soil-Cement Bricks Produced From Local Clay Brick Waste And Soft Sludge From Fiber Cement Production, Nuntaporn Kongkajun, Edward A. Laitila, Pitcharat Ineure, Wichit Prakaypan, Benya Cherdhirunkorn, Parinya Chakartnarodom

Michigan Tech Publications

Soil-cement bricks were produced using local clay brick waste (CBW) and soft sludge (SS) from fiber-cement industries, preserving raw resources by substituting with industrial wastes. The control formula to produce soil-cement bricks, is 15 wt% Portland cement, 15 wt% sand, and 70 wt% laterite. Clay brick waste was added with values from 10 to 50 % of laterite weight in the control formula. For SS, 5 and 10 % was used to replace the total weight of the dry mixture in the control formula. The samples were shaped by using a manual brick making machine. The results showed that the …


Towards Distributed Recycling With Additive Manufacturing Of Pet Flake Feedstocks, Helen A. Little, Nagendra Gautam Tanikella, Matthew J. Reich, Matthew J. Fiedler, Samantha L. Snabes, Joshua M. Pearce Sep 2020

Towards Distributed Recycling With Additive Manufacturing Of Pet Flake Feedstocks, Helen A. Little, Nagendra Gautam Tanikella, Matthew J. Reich, Matthew J. Fiedler, Samantha L. Snabes, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

This study explores the potential to reach a circular economy for post-consumer Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate (rPET) packaging and bottles by using it as a Distributed Recycling for Additive Manufacturing (DRAM) feedstock. Specifically, for the first time, rPET water bottle flake is processed using only an open source toolchain with Fused Particle Fabrication (FPF) or Fused Granular Fabrication (FGF) processing rather than first converting it to filament. In this study, first the impact of granulation, sifting, and heating (and their sequential combination) is quantified on the shape and size distribution of the rPET flakes. Then 3D printing tests were performed on …


Plastic Recycling In Additive Manufacturing: A Systematic Literature Review And Opportunities For The Circular Economy, Fabio A. Cruz Sanchez, Hakim Boudaoud, Mauricio Camargo, Joshua M. Pearce Aug 2020

Plastic Recycling In Additive Manufacturing: A Systematic Literature Review And Opportunities For The Circular Economy, Fabio A. Cruz Sanchez, Hakim Boudaoud, Mauricio Camargo, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

The rapid technical evolution of additive manufacturing (AM) enables a new path to a circular economy using distributed recycling and production. This concept of Distributed Recycling via Additive Manufacturing (DRAM) is related to the use of recycled materials by means of mechanical recycling process in the 3D printing process chain. This paper aims to examine the current advances on thermoplastic recycling processes via additive manufacturing technologies. After proposing a closed recycling global chain for DRAM, a systematic literature review including 92 papers from 2009 to 2019 was performed using the scopus, web of science and springer databases. This work examines …


Open Source Waste Plastic Granulator, Arvind Ravindran, Sean Scsavnicki, Walker Nelson, Peter Gorecki, Jacob Franz, Shane Oberloier, Theresa K. Meyer, Andrew Barnard, Joshua M. Pearce Oct 2019

Open Source Waste Plastic Granulator, Arvind Ravindran, Sean Scsavnicki, Walker Nelson, Peter Gorecki, Jacob Franz, Shane Oberloier, Theresa K. Meyer, Andrew Barnard, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

In order to accelerate deployment of distributed recycling by providing low-cost feed stocks of granulated post-consumer waste plastic, this study analyzes an open source waste plastic granulator system. It is designed, built, and tested for its ability to convert post-consumer waste, 3D printed products and waste into polymer feedstock for recyclebots of fused particle/granule printers. The technical specifications of the device are quantified in terms of power consumption (380 to 404 W for PET and PLA, respectively) and particle size distribution. The open source device can be fabricated for less than $2000 USD in materials. The experimentally measured power use …


Mechanical Properties And Applications Of Recycled Polycarbonate Particle Material Extrusion-Based Additive Manufacturing, Matthew J. Reich, Aubrey Woern, Nagendra Gautam Tanikella, Joshua M. Pearce May 2019

Mechanical Properties And Applications Of Recycled Polycarbonate Particle Material Extrusion-Based Additive Manufacturing, Matthew J. Reich, Aubrey Woern, Nagendra Gautam Tanikella, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

Past work has shown that particle material extrusion (fused particle fabrication (FPF)/fused granular fabrication (FGF)) has the potential for increasing the use of recycled polymers in 3D printing. This study extends this potential to high-performance (high-mechanical-strength and heat-resistant) polymers using polycarbonate (PC). Recycled PC regrind of approximately 25 mm2 was 3D printed with an open-source Gigabot X and analyzed. A temperature and nozzle velocity matrix was used to find useful printing parameters, and a print test was used to maximize the output for a two-temperature stage extruder for PC. ASTM type 4 tensile test geometries as well as ASTM-approved …


Towards Sustainable Production Of Chemicals And Fuels From The Fast Pyrolysis Of Waste Polyolefin Plastics, Ulises Gracida Alvarez Jan 2019

Towards Sustainable Production Of Chemicals And Fuels From The Fast Pyrolysis Of Waste Polyolefin Plastics, Ulises Gracida Alvarez

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The increasing amount of plastic waste (PW) generation has become an important concern due to the leveled-off recycling rates. Therefore, governmental agencies around the world, including state governments in the United States, have proposed initiatives to minimize the amount of PW that is landfilled and encourage recycling or energy recovery. Circular economy is a strategy that attempts on reusing PW to produce new polymers while avoiding its disposal and the use of virgin material. Chemical recycling raises an interesting technology prospect due to the potential reduction of pollutant emissions and the establishment of a circular economy through the production of …


3-D Printable Polymer Pelletizer Chopper For Fused Granular Fabrication-Based Additive Manufacturing, Aubrey Woern, Joshua M. Pearce Nov 2018

3-D Printable Polymer Pelletizer Chopper For Fused Granular Fabrication-Based Additive Manufacturing, Aubrey Woern, Joshua M. Pearce

Department of Materials Science and Engineering Publications

Although distributed additive manufacturing can provide high returns on investment, the current markup on commercial filament over base polymers limits deployment. These cost barriers can be surmounted by eliminating the entire process of fusing filament by three-dimensional (3-D) printing products directly from polymer granules. Fused granular fabrication (FGF) (or fused particle fabrication (FPF)) is being held back in part by the accessibility of low-cost pelletizers and choppers. An open-source 3-D printable invention disclosed here allows for precisely controlled pelletizing of both single thermopolymers as well as composites for 3-D printing. The system is designed, built, and tested for its ability …


Reprapable Recyclebot: Open Source 3-D Printable Extruder For Converting Plastic To 3-D Printing Filament, Aubrey Woern, Joseph Mccaslin, Adam Pringle, Joshua M. Pearce May 2018

Reprapable Recyclebot: Open Source 3-D Printable Extruder For Converting Plastic To 3-D Printing Filament, Aubrey Woern, Joseph Mccaslin, Adam Pringle, Joshua M. Pearce

Department of Materials Science and Engineering Publications

In order to assist researchers explore the full potential of distributed recycling of post-consumer polymer waste, this article describes a recyclebot, which is a waste plastic extruder capable of making commercial quality 3-D printing filament. The device design takes advantage of both the open source hardware methodology and the paradigm developed by the open source self-replicating rapid prototyper (RepRap) 3-D printer community. Specifically, this paper describes the design, fabrication and operation of a RepRapable Recyclebot, which refers to the Recyclebot’s ability to provide the filament needed to largely replicate the parts for the Recyclebot on any type of RepRap 3-D …


Tightening The Loop On The Circular Economy: Distributed Plastic Recycling With An Open Source Recyclebot, Shan Zhong Jan 2017

Tightening The Loop On The Circular Economy: Distributed Plastic Recycling With An Open Source Recyclebot, Shan Zhong

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Following the goals of a circular economy, the growth of both plastic consumption and prosumer 3-D printing are driving an interest in producing 3-D printer filament from waste plastic. However, traditional recycling can have a significant environmental impact as it demands the collection and transportation of relatively low-density waste plastics to collection centers and reclamation facilities for separation and reconstruction. Compared to the traditional recycling, distributed recycling (where consumers directly recycle their own waste) has the potential to reduce energy consumption because it can save the energy for transportation needed in conventional recycling. A promising method of such distributed plastic …