Design and Fabrication of Plastic Pelletizing Machine

Plastic pollution has become a global issue as our planet is flooding with plastic waste and micro plastics. Plastic production has been continuously increasing globally for more than 50 years. Due to this plastic recycling plays a vital role in reducing these impacts and it is one of the most

Project Title

Design and Fabrication of Plastic Pelletizing Machine

Project Area of Specialization

Mechanical Engineering

Project Summary

Plastic pollution has become a global issue as our planet is flooding with plastic waste and micro plastics. Plastic production has been continuously increasing globally for more than 50 years. Due to this plastic recycling plays a vital role in reducing these impacts and it is one of the most important aspects of the plastic industry today. Small scale plastic pelletizer would contribute to the society in recycling plastic by converting plastic waste  into pellets by extrusion process in which the HDPE flakes get transported to the feed throat  as it passes through the hopper. These flakes then come in contact with the screw which rotates through a motor. The barrel chamber is heated by mica band heaters whose temperature is gradually increased. The HDPE flakes that pass through the screw gets heated and melted which then gets extruded from nozzle which then passes through the extrusion die followed cooling and cutting process. 

Project Objectives

The Plastic pelletizer designed and fabricated will be compact and portable. Plastic pelletizing machine will have the following features;

• Will convert shredded plastic into plastic pellets.
• Will be portable hence can be transported easily.
• Installing procedure will be basic and no special skills will be required.
• Basic controls will make sure that it is easily operated by a non-technical person.
• Highly durable and low maintenance cost.
• It will enable plastic recycling at small scale such as in societies.

Project Implementation Method

We first created a 3d design of our plasitc pelletizer using CAD software (CREO) and then with the help of a simulation software we did a detail stress analysis to check wheather the design would be practically safe or not. We first design the extruder screw and apply different kind of loads, the results were satisfactory as the induced stresses were less than the ultimate stress. Then we move onto the designing phase of Barrel support which will be made through a CNC lathe machine. Frame design was built on CREO and through ANSYS the deformations were checked in order to  ensure the safety of our entire pelletizer. Through arduino coding the direction and speed of roller use to move the molten plastic, will be controlled. 

Benefits of the Project

• It will reduce environmental pollution across ecosystem by decreasing the chance of plastic waste being dumped
• Recycling plastic garbage reduces the amount of space that plastic waste takes up in landfills.
• Recycling requires less energy and helps in conserving natural resources.
• It decreases the need for skilled human labor in plastic recycling.
• The machine decreases the amount of plastic waste that ends up in the environment.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The final fabricated machine would be able to produce pellets at a rate of 9 kg per hour. The plastic pelletizer uses three AC motors to operate the screw, the cutting blade and the rollers. The input for the pelletizer would be shreded plastic flakes which will be melted in the barrel due to the heating elements place on the barrel, a control panel to control the heating elements temperature would also be setup. The melted plastic exiting the barrel will then pass through a cooling tank with the help of rollers and then onto the blade for cutting. The barrel will be manufactured with the help of lathe machine and the extrusion screw with the help of CNC machining.

Final Deliverable of the Project

Hardware System

Core Industry

Manufacturing

Other Industries

Core Technology

Clean Tech

Other Technologies

Sustainable Development Goals

Responsible Consumption and Production, Climate Action, Life Below Water, Life on Land

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com