Cleansing Plastic before Moulding

Polymer Craft Research about plastic
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Hey guys,

I love this whole website purpose and am on my way to create a filament extrusion machine for PET bottles. One thing that has been bothering me is the cleanliness aspect of the bottles. Along with mud and dust, they might be contaminated with “germs” (trash cans, saliva). I was wondering if there are any good ways to cleanse, sterlize or de-contaminate them ?

Would love to hear your experience on the same.

Thanks all.
Abhinav

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2

Thanks! Yes, plastic needs to be clean. We are looking at different ways on how to effectively clean them. Still in development though, do let us know if you have any tips or examples that could be useful. Or stay tuned and wait for us to develop it 🙂

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once you melt the plastic like hdpe at 200c it is sterile. You should never use recycled for food items anyways.

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@cloemarite it is definitely not a bad idea, although i would definitely wash of the worst of the contaminants. Good luck 🙂

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@parseraider i think it would be way easier, and not to mention the fact that you would waste a rather large amount of plastic. i would recommend a water bath with soap of some sort and another one to rinse off the soap residue.

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@brentzdentz ozone would kill anything alive, but it wouldn’t get rid of the oils, grime etc. besides, ozone is somewhat difficult to get hold of

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I don’t have experience to share yet, but i have been thinking lots about this, and am imagining it might be easiest to shred the plastic first, and then put it through some kind of bath, like with TSP to clean it?

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Wouldn’t a basic bleach bath kill anything in regards to any contaminants that could be on/in the bottles.

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Hello Guys,

does anyone have experience with washing plastic or any good examples to share?


@davehakkens


@annamann

Thank you.

10

I’m exploring the idea of steaming the pieces. But I’m not an engineer- so my ideas are not very precise.

Have you seen the machines that apply the coating to candy? Something like that but with steam/spray could work.

11

I am wondering if plastic in the molten or semi solid state will form a skim or a slag layer like with metals? This cant be washed off and I think is caused by UV damage and is when plastic like buckets and drums get old and fade color and develop a dull flakey exterior. Is this non-recyclable plastic?
What to do with it?