Products from reinforced post-consumer carpet

5 Products from reinforced post-consumer carpet 

A variety of compression molded prodncts are being developed. One approach 

3 Extrusion of 30% glass fiber reinforced nylon 6 PCC as a substitute for structural lumber. 

4 In-line process for converting PCC into molded and extruded products. 

The in-line molding has been demonstrated at Georgia Tech. A 30 mm twin screw extruder from NFM Welding Engineers was used to melt PCC, add 25 mm glass fibers, vent volatiles and extrude a 25 mm-diameter hot log. The hot log was cut at regular time intervals, folded and immediately compression molded into 

---

Muzzy J., Wang Y., Hagberg C., Patel P., Jin K., Samanta S., Bryson L. and Shaw B. (2004), Long Fiber Reinforced Post-Consumer Carpet , ANTEC 2004, Annual Technical Conference of the Society of Plastics Engineers, May 16-20, Chicago, Illinois. Kotliar A. and Fountain D. P. (1997), Synthetic Wood from Waste Fibrous Waste Products , US Patent 5 626 939. 

Up to 25% by weight of the relatively pure recycled nylon is compounded with virgin nylon and reinforcements and is sold commercially as an injection molding resin. This resin with recycled content is not cheaper than virgin nylon due to the cost of separation and purification. While it is used to make engine manifolds, it is not sold in sufficient quantities to divert much carpet from landfills. Therefore, less pure and potentially less expensive composite materials and products based on post-consumer carpet are considered next. 

Carpet waste generated each year and accumulated in landfills represents a considerable potential resource, as it may be converted into various useful products The rate of carpet disposal is about 2-3 million tons per year in the US A, and about 4-6 million tons per year worldwide. A carpet typically consists of two layers of (i) backing (usually fabrics from polypropylene tape yams), joined by CaCOj filled styrene-butadiene latex rubber (SBR), and (ii) face fibers (the majority being nylon 6 and nylon 66 textured yams) tufted into the primary backing. To use post-consumer carpet (PCC) as concrete or soil reinforcement, the carpet is shredded to recover fibers. It is generally not necessary to disassemble yams in the carpet into individual fibers. The size-reduction process yields the following from PCC ... 

---