ABSTRACT
Consequent on the environmental degradation caused by the littering of polythene materials in our cities, a polythene-recycling machine was designed and constructed. The machine melts washed polythene products of various sizes and shapes, and pelletized them for industrial use. The machine was designed to convey polythene materials used as satchels, bags or sheets, feed through a hopper and transferred to the hot zone through a screw conveyor chamber. The screw conveyor was driven by an electric motor that turns or rotates at a predetermined speed. The hot zone was heated with a resistance heating element and the heat being controlled or regulated by a thermocouple. When the polythene material gets to the hot zone which was maintained at 200°C (within the temp range of 150–300°C) Khanna, O.P. (2005,) it is melted or softened. The resulting soft material-was extruded through the orifice or die at the end of the chamber. The out-feed product was collected as raw materials for the plastic industry.
