Investigation on Mechanical Properties of Blend Virgin and Recycled Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene (ABS) in Injection Molding

Abstract

Acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) is one of the most widely used plastic. The application of ABS increases rapidly in industries recently. The drawback of the increasing demand of ABS is the increment of ABS waste. Huge increment in ABS waste has led to the increasing of environmental pollution. The demand in green technology and sustainability of resources has urged the need of recycling of ABS waste. However, the mechanical properties of the recycled ABS are deteriorated. Hence, this work aims to study the mechanical properties of blend virgin and recycled ABS. The first sample started with 100wt% of virgin ABS. While the second to eleventh samples was a mixing of virgin and recycled ABS at 10wt% incremental recycled ABS. The last sample was prepared using 100wt% of recycled ABS. The results show that the tensile strength of 100wt% of recycled ABS is slightly decreased as compared to 100wt% virgin ABS. Similar trend was observed on traverse rupture strength (TRS) when the TRS for 100wt% of recycled ABS is lower by 8% when compared to 100wt% of virgin ABS. The most significant change is observed on the impact strength. The impact strength for 100wt% of recycled ABS is substantially dropped by 86% as compared to 100wt% of virgin ABS.