Study of microstructure and mechanical properties of injection molded Arboform parts

Abstract

The industry of petroleum-based plastic materials is one of the major responsible for numerous unpleasant environmental impacts. The biggest negative effect is given by absence of plastics biodegradability and recyclability, leading to accumulation of huge amount of waste. The experimental study is planed over the Taguchi methodology with two levels and six input parameters. Experimental data show that the tensile strength reached 58.61±2.73 MPa at 23^oC and 5.45±0.34 MPa at 60^oC. The friction coefficient exhibits a slight decrease during the first 100 s, in case of disk rotation, and then the value is stable throughout the whole testing. Considering disk oscillation, there is an increase in the friction coefficient, which reaches a peak after about 50 s and then decreases within the range of 50-150 s. <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">The material seems to have a completely amorphous structure, without being able to accurately determine the type of existing constituents. It includes C, O and other accompanying elements in very small proportions. The SEM analysis shows a randomly oriented structure. In the chemical elements spectrum, carbon and oxygen predominate, in both percentage and atomic mass. According to the analyses performed Arboform L, V3 Nature can replace plastic materials in many industries, such as automotive, toys, construction, electrical, computers, mobile phone cases, etc.

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