At any large event, an inordinate amount of rubbish is generated and the Paralympics is no exception – it has been estimated that 8,500 tonnes of rubbish has been generated just by the Olympics alone. With London 2012 being heralded as the first ‘zero waste games’, all of this rubbish will be winding its way to various recycling centres. Much of the material is in the form of plastic bottles, bags, and other forms of packaging.
Fortunately this type of rubbish can easily be recycled, in a process which involves sorting, granulating, blending, and melting the recyclate. From here, the material can either be recycled directly into new, low-quality product or ‘compounded’ with additives, colourants and virgin material into tiny pellets to be used as a raw material. The biggest problem faced by the compounder or recycler is the inconsistency of the material. Even materials that are technically the same may have been processed in different ways and exposed to different conditions which can affect chemical composition and physical properties. Primarily, the manufacturer needs to know the appropriate processing conditions in order to produce consistently satisfactory product.
One way of determining these conditions is to measure the Melt Flow Index (MFI), a quantity which is also useful in quality control processes. The MFI represents the amount of material flowing through a die of predetermined size and shape in ten minutes, and is measured as Mass Flow Rate (MFR). With knowledge of the melt density, the Melt Volume Rate (MVR) can also be calculated. Melt Flow Indexers measures MFR and MVR in an accurate and repeatable manner; the machines are ergonomic and computer controllable, ranging from the basic model to the advanced, automated, multi-weight machine.
Read here for more information regarding Melt Flow and Volume Rate testing.
Fortunately this type of rubbish can easily be recycled, in a process which involves sorting, granulating, blending, and melting the recyclate. From here, the material can either be recycled directly into new, low-quality product or ‘compounded’ with additives, colourants and virgin material into tiny pellets to be used as a raw material. The biggest problem faced by the compounder or recycler is the inconsistency of the material. Even materials that are technically the same may have been processed in different ways and exposed to different conditions which can affect chemical composition and physical properties. Primarily, the manufacturer needs to know the appropriate processing conditions in order to produce consistently satisfactory product.
One way of determining these conditions is to measure the Melt Flow Index (MFI), a quantity which is also useful in quality control processes. The MFI represents the amount of material flowing through a die of predetermined size and shape in ten minutes, and is measured as Mass Flow Rate (MFR). With knowledge of the melt density, the Melt Volume Rate (MVR) can also be calculated. Melt Flow Indexers measures MFR and MVR in an accurate and repeatable manner; the machines are ergonomic and computer controllable, ranging from the basic model to the advanced, automated, multi-weight machine.
Read here for more information regarding Melt Flow and Volume Rate testing.
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