2 minute read

Solar Plastic Injection

by PlastOK


Today volks.eco and PlastOK are proud to share with you a solution to inject some precious plastic parts using only solar and human power.
We believe this method will spread further the precious plastic concept and increase the potential use of plastic waste anywhere in the world.
This is our first step in the solar precious plastic experience.
Don’t forget your sunscreen, sunglasses and enjoy ! —

Attachments

    Resources

    Step 1 - Prepare the setup

    You need :

    - volks.eco solar concentrator
    - Hydraulic Jack press
    - Cartridge made with a plumbing pipe
    - Shredded HDPE
    - Injection mold
    - Cup of water
    - Oven gloves
    - Clamp

    Find a sunny place and preheat the solar tube concentrator






    Step 2 - Load the cartridge

    Load the shredded plastic inside the iron cartridge.

    Compress as much as you can the needed amount of plastic depending on the volume of your part, inside the cartridge.

    Lock the plumbing pipe with ½" of cap ends.

    Load the cartridge inside the solar concentrator.






    Step 3 - Heating the Cartridge

    Wait the time necessary depending on the sunlight exposure (between 30 and 60 min).

    You can load several iron cartridge inside the solar concentrator to speed up the process.

    Use a temp prob inside of the heated tube to manage the temperature of the cartridge.

    The concentrator can heat up between 180-250°C.

    There is a lot to learn with this method and a lot of inputs to bring on the table.






    Step 4 - Screw cartridge & mold

    The cartridge will be really hot, USE GLOVES !

    Remove the two cap ends of the hot cartridge.

    Plunge one extremity of the tube in the cup of water.

    By putting the end of the tube in the water, you will make a hard plastic piece that will push the melted plastic inside of the mold.

    NB : Preheating the mold above 60°C helps a lot to obtain a nice finished part.
    The preheating is easily achieved by putting the mold a few minutes in the solar concentrator.






    Step 5 - Inject manually

    Inject the plastic inside the mold, the quicker you can, the better it is.

    We will share how to build our portable hydraulic jack press next time.






    Step 6 - Extract the injected part

    Be sure to have cooled down the mold (if needed you can put it in cold water) before extracting your injected part.

    Now you have a nicely injected finished part made only with human and solar power !

    Mechanical improvement has to be made with the mold for the extraction, it's just a prototype for this proof of concept






    Step 7 - Recap

    This video shows the whole process and the time expected for every step. (It works, but we can improve it).

    The solar concentrator is a solution that doesn't need any electricity.

    You can setup this everywhere (beach, mountain, city) in any season, you just need a little bit of sun.

    If you are interested in the solar concentrator, feel free to visit volks.eco and contact my friend Marco.

    He has been working on this nice solar concentrator for a long time now, and it can be used in so much other ways.

    I hope you find your way with it and that it will open doors on the potential of solar energy for plastic recycling.

    Thanks Marco for your input and Precious Plastic for all !



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