Method and Apparatus for Recycling Post-Consumer Plastic Waste

摘要

A method of recycling post-consumer plastic waste into mono filament for use in fused filament fabrication, injection molding, or other plastic manufacturing processes. Contaminated curbside plastic waste is sorted and granulated to uniform sized flakes. The plastic regrind is cleaned in a closed-loop wash cycle and dried at 160° F. and −70 dew point to reduce the moisture content to less than 0.03%. The effluent water is purified to be reused in the system. The flake plastic is extruded to a molten state and passes through additional melt filtration. A laser micrometer measures extrudate metrics like diameter and ovality to dynamically control feed and flow rates of the extruder to maintain diameter uniformity within 0.018 mm of target diameter.