Plastic portfolio

Portfolio Dennis Andersson, Architecture & Extreme Environments, 1st semester work

Invesitigation

100 million plastic bags end up in the environment of Tanzania every year

DEVICE Can I make a transportable device that can transform plastic waste into building components?

TILES

Ceramics is expensive, and rarely used.

Many households lack sufaces that is easy to clean in kitchens and toilets Can tiles made from plastic waste be an alternative to kitchen- or bathroom tiles?

ROOFING

WINDOWS

Roof tiles are expensive, and the cheaper alternative corrugated aluminium gets very hot during the day

Many houses have few or no windows, and lack natural light inside the buildings

Could a plastic roof have a cooling effect?

Is it possible to make translucent plates out of plastic waste?

FACADE

Walls are often made with heavy materials such as brick, stone or mud which make them accumulate heat during the day, that is then released during night Could you make a light facade out of plastic waste, that would be cooler during the night?

Plastic bags cause havoc and block drainage systems which cause flooding, leading to outbreak of waterborne diseases, including typhoid and cholera.

Today only about 2% of the produced plastics are recycled, the rest end up in the environment, or gets burned for energy.

Through dealing with the plastic waste in a sustainable way, and recycling a larger amount of it, would decrease the burning of material made from fossil fuels.

Achieve the environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle, and significantly reduce their release to water and soil in order to minimize their adverse impacts on human health and the environment. Also substantially reduce waste generation through recycling.

UN Sustainable Development Goals

To improve education about pollution, raise awareness and on climate change mitigation, adaptation, and impact reduction.

Also encouraging mechanisms for raising capacity for effective climate changerelated planning and management.

Prevent and reduce marine plastic pollution. A prediction made by the Worldwatch Institute suggests that by 2050, continuing current trends, there will be more plastic waste than fish in our oceans.

Today it is calculated that 95% of all fish has ingested some kind of micro plastic from our waste.

By dealing with the issue of plastic pollution in our environment, we are taking steps to ensure the conservation and restoration of the ecosystems we all benefit from and are dependent on.

Common usage

Symbol

Plastic name

Melting point

Description

PET

Polyethelene Terephalate

260 °C

Clear, tough plastic such as drink, juice and water bottles

HDPE

High Density Polyethelene

120-180 °C

Common semi-translucent, or colored plastic suck as milk comtainers and shampoo bottles

PVC

Polyvinyl Cloride

100-260 °C

Hard rigid plastic such as cordial bottles and piping

LDPE

Low Density Polyethelene

105-115 °C

Soft flexible plastic, e.g plastic bags

PP

Polypropylene

130-160 °C

hard but flexible plastic such as microwave ware, takeaway conrtainers

PS

Polystyrene

240 °C

OTHER

E.G, SAN, ABS, PC, NYLON

190–350 °C

Rigid, brittle plastic such as small tubs and butter containers All other plastics, in cluding acrylic and nylon.

Examples include some sports drink bottles, sunglasses.

Injection

Oven

Plastic pieces is melted in a container, and injected into a mould

Heat surrounds the press, but takes longer to melt plastic

Extrusion

Open fire

Plastic granulate is melted in a tube, extruded to profiles

The fire is heating the bottom and the sides of the press

Compression

Gas burner

A press is filled woth plastic, heated and compressed into desired shape

The flame heats a small surface, and the material dispurses the heat

Plastic - Plastic types, shaping- and heating methods Plastic types in our surroundings. HDPE and LDPE is very common, and have an appropriate melting temperature for the purpose.

The types is some of the safest plastics to melt; not much fumes is released until yiu burn the material. Compression is chosen as shaping technique, and three different heating methods are to be tested.

First prototypes

2.

6.

3.

7.

4.

1.

5.

8.

Plastic melting and pressing tools 1. Extended pliers

3. Pressing frame

5. Press opening tool

5. Welding gun

2. Pressing plates

4. Welding press

6. Welding press

6. Point Welders

Used for handling press when melting plastic over open fire

3mm aluminium plates. Aluminium used because of its heat leading capabilities

Welded steel bars & M8 threaded rods for compressing

Welding fibres into plastic sheets, with rope handle for heat protection

When press stick to plastic, this is used by screwing the winged nut

Welding fibres into plastic sheets, with rope handle for heat protection

For melting plastic inside, which is extruded through nozzle

Two different kinds of welding tools, used for welding two pieces of plastic together

Sisal reinforced plastic Oven set on 150 degrees, heat for 25 minutes. The reasult was a translucent hard plate where the sisal fibres shine through

Plastic bags First tests with LDPE plastic bags. Result was strong plates, but softer than the HDPE

HDPE HDPE Plastic from cleaning supplies. Melts quicker than in oven. Helt over fire for 10 minuts. The result is a semi-translucent sheet with colours floating through each other

Final prototypes

1. Fill with plastic waste

2. Close press + attach pressing arms

Phases of pressing

3. Heat for 15-20 minutes on gas burner

4. Separate press, and take result out

Prototype sketches - Corrugated Roof Tile Sketches of different roof tiles. To the right is a proposal for how to construct a press that can produce roof tiles. The difficulty about this design is to make the corrugated plates. Roofs at retailers are to thin to use.

Press Types

Making a corrugated press plate The corrugated press had to be made from scratch. The roof sheets you can buy at retailers are to thin to be able to press anything.

An alternative was to put 2-3 sheets of roof pannels together and weld them, to be more rigid. A press was made out of 36 mm steel bars, to force 2two sheets of aluminium to a sinus shape, the same as the standard shape of roofs in Tanzania.

Corrugated Press - Extensions for pressing arms Extensions is screwed on to the pressing arms

Digital Manufacturing Supports for the corrugated aluminium press has lasercutted at Roskile University. The shape made it hard to manufacture in KADK workshop. The supports are made from 1.5 mm stainless steel

420 25

Pressing Arms

120

116

3mm Aluminium

116 120

Small Press (Fresnel)

336

340

3mm Aluminium

240

236

Medium Press

340

416

420

3mm Aluminium

336

Large Press 3mm Aluminium

Pressing Plates - Dimensions Plates is made from 3mm aluminium, with edges folded up, whixh make a rigid construction and reduces material.

Winged nuts

Welded steel M8 threaded

Pressing arms

3mm bent aluminium

Pressing Extensions 3mm bent steel

420 x 340mm Plastic Press TOP 3mm bent aluminium

420 x 340mm Plastic Press BOTTOM 3mm bent aluminium

Pressing arms

3mm bent aluminium

Self-locking screw

M8 treaded rod, welded onto 3mm Steel plate

Exploded axonometric - Large press Parts of press and detailed description

Fresnel press - Sketches The fresnel lens concentrates the suns rays to heat the press until plastic melts

Small press with centralized tightening technique

Fresnel press - Solar powered plastic melter and press 1. 395x395mm Fresnel Lens 2mm acrylic

2. Lens frame 2mm bent aluminium

3. Lens Arms 4mm bent steel rod, threaded in ends

4. 120 x 120 Plastic Press BOTTOM 3mm bent aluminium

5. 120 x 120 Plastic Press TOP 3mm bent aluminium

6. Cantralized pulling arm 3mm welded steel + M8 threaded rod

7. Cantralized pressing arm 3mm bent steel + 10mm steel pipe

8. Center column 5mm steel rod + welded steel brackets

9. Winged nut Welded steel M8 threaded

10. Adjustable sliding bracket 2mm bent aluminium

11. Tri-pod Legs 2mm bent aluminium

12. Cross braces 2mm bent aluminium

1.

2.

3.

4.

6.

5.

7.

9.

8.

11.

10.

15.

14.

16.

13.

12.

17.

18.

Device Parts 1. Press Extensions 2. Screws 3. Medium Pressing Plate 4. Large Pressing Plate 5. Corrugated press-extensions

6. Self-locking screws 7. Fresnel frame support 8. Tripod Legs 9. Pressing arms 10. Centralized presser

11. M4 winged nuts 12. Cross braces 13. Center column 14. centralized pulling arm 15. Small Press

16. Corrugated press 17. Fresnel frame 18. Fresnel lens

Bag fits all the parts of device

04. Device Transportation Bag that fit all the parts of the device. Made from strong polyester canvas, mounted on an aluminium frame.

Device on field trip

Device on field trip

Device on field trip

Courtesy of Mahamed Yousuf Abdi

Windows of Muheza Windows are often just a frame with nets, curtains or bars. Many openings are filled again, when owners cant afford a window

Making a Window Making a translucent window panel out of used plastic bags

Making a window Carpenter and house owner Joseph Barnabas lets me install plastic window in his house. He helped me build the frame for the window.

Joseph Barnabas by his house

Inside of Josephshome, view towards toilet Hallway previously without natural light.

Roof Panel Social gathering of kids trying out the press and make a colourful rof panel

Final results - Different plates from different plastics Different presses for plastic waste. Parts made form Aluminium and steel, so the presses can withstand heat