Introduction

The invention consists of an upcycling technology for thermoplastic materials based on polycondensation polymers, such as polyesters or polyamides, to modulate their thermomechanical properties in order to make them suitable for the manufacture of articles resistant to impulsive mechanical stress, in particular to impact.
The patented innovation aims to the valorisation of recovered plastics (processing waste and selected packaging waste), mainly consisting of polyolefins and polyethylene terephthalate.

Technical features

The upcycling process consists in modifying the structural and compositional characteristics of the thermoplastic material, via reactive mixing with suitable low and high molecular weight co-formulants to give the material performance levels suitable for different application areas (insulating or conductive, self-lubricating, coloring, impact resistant), for which it is otherwise necessary to use a wide range of different polymer-based materials, possibly combined with appropriate “fillers” (generally inorganic). Plastic materials with shockproof properties are designed to offer sustainable solutions thanks to the use of recycled plastics which, appropriately reformulated to improve compatibility with other components present in the recycled material or added to give specific final properties, allow to obtain performances that synergistically combine the properties of the individual components. “Tailor made” materials can be widely used as they can be transformed through extrusion processes (wire, filament, sheet, profile), injection moulding and thermoforming, for various applications and following the principle of the circular economy. The achieved TRL varies from 3 to 7 depending on the type of material produced.

Possible Applications

• Impact-resistant products and elastic modulus comparable to ABS resins, based on post-consumer PET, injection mouldable (e.g. shopping trolley prototype);
• Impact-resistant materials based on post-industrial PET, for extrusion into thermoformable flat sheets (e.g. for caravan interior parts).

Advantages

• Shock resistance;
• Flame retardant and self-extinguishing properties;
• Adaptability and performance levels suitable for different application areas;
• Sustainable solutions using recycled plastics.