TY - JOUR
T1 - Improvement of mechanical properties of recycled plastic blends via optimizing processing parameters using the Taguchi method and principal component analysis
AU - Gu, Fu
AU - Hall, Philip
AU - Miles, Nicholas J.
AU - Ding, Qianwen
AU - Wu, Tao
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was financially supported by the Innovation Team of Ningbo Science and Technology Bureau ( 2011B81006 ) and International Technological Cooperation Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology ( 2012DFG91920 ).
PY - 2014/10
Y1 - 2014/10
N2 - In this paper, the Taguchi method and principal component analysis (PCA) are used to improve the mechanical properties of recycled polypropylene (PP) blends in injection moulding procedure, with detailed assessments performed on each method and comparison was made based on results of both the methods. The experimental design was carried out by adopting a L9-34 Taguchi orthodoxy array (OA), which has four controllable factors (i.e., melt temperature, mould temperature, injection speed and packing pressure) at three levels. Injection moulded specimens made from different compositions of virgin-recycled PP were tested to determine the optimal conditions for the injection moulding procedure. The effects of the processing parameters and the proportion of recycled plastic in composites on the mechanical properties were investigated, the optimal conditions for desired properties were obtained and then verified. The appropriate blending ratio of virgin and recycled plastic was evaluated. The results reveal that deteriorations in the mechanical properties of products produced from recycled plastic can be improved by optimizing the processing parameters during the injection moulding procedure.
AB - In this paper, the Taguchi method and principal component analysis (PCA) are used to improve the mechanical properties of recycled polypropylene (PP) blends in injection moulding procedure, with detailed assessments performed on each method and comparison was made based on results of both the methods. The experimental design was carried out by adopting a L9-34 Taguchi orthodoxy array (OA), which has four controllable factors (i.e., melt temperature, mould temperature, injection speed and packing pressure) at three levels. Injection moulded specimens made from different compositions of virgin-recycled PP were tested to determine the optimal conditions for the injection moulding procedure. The effects of the processing parameters and the proportion of recycled plastic in composites on the mechanical properties were investigated, the optimal conditions for desired properties were obtained and then verified. The appropriate blending ratio of virgin and recycled plastic was evaluated. The results reveal that deteriorations in the mechanical properties of products produced from recycled plastic can be improved by optimizing the processing parameters during the injection moulding procedure.
KW - Blends
KW - Injection moulding
KW - Principal component analysis
KW - Recycled polypropylene
KW - Taguchi method
KW - Virgin polypropylene
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84901829317&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.matdes.2014.05.013
DO - 10.1016/j.matdes.2014.05.013
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84901829317
SN - 0264-1275
VL - 62
SP - 189
EP - 198
JO - Materials and Design
JF - Materials and Design
ER -