A Study Of The Thermal And Mechanical Properties Of Recycled Crosslinked Hdpe

Crosslinked high-density polyethylene (XHDPE) is used to manufacture large and rigid products, such as fuel tanks, using a rotomolding process. Currently, defective and post-consumer parts are not recycled and sent to landfills. Hence, reuse of this material, through compression molding is the objective of this study. Thermal characterization indicated that the recycled XHDPE, in pulverized powder form, could melt although the heat of fusion was less than that of virgin material. However, while the virgin XHDPE could be compression molded at the melting temperature, the recycled XHDPE required higher temperature. The recycled XHDPE started to degrade at lower temperature than virgin XHDPE. Based on this data, optimal compression molding process conditions were chosen to prepare dense tensile test coupons. Both materials exhibited similar tensile properties demonstrating the recyclability of XHDPE.