Investigation of physically treated recycled cross-linked polyethylene foam waste for automotive insulator

Nowadays recycle of thermoset polymers has attracted for reducing environmental pollution and preserving natural resources. The main purpose of this article is to investigated possible use of recycled commercial cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) foam waste [1,2]. Structure of the foam was confirmed by using FT-IR technique. The most XLPE structural polyethylene foams are closed cells. Their application is in certain cases, including automotive and building section because of these industries require low weight, high damping of sound and thermal insulting. Physically treated (using two type of milling) recycled of the waste foam obtained from the AKT plant product examined. The recycled foam was added to the original formula of insulating for 55 to 75 min of compounding. Their effect was study in both laboratory (3.5 kg) and industrial (700 kg) scales. Addition of the XLPE waste was not affected on the main characters of the final product in laboratory (tensile strain, elongation at break (Figure 1), shear strain and density). On the other hand, properties such as loss factor slightly change (from 0.060% to 0.056%) and shrinkage (from 1.0% to 2.5%). Although the recycle waste was added to the compound their mechanical properties were not change so much in both laboratory and industrial scales which in using now