PURRC Flexible Foam Task Group: Recycling Automotive Seating - An Update

Format:

Conference/Event

Author/Creator:

Quinlan, John J., author.

Conference Name:

International Congress & Exposition (1994-02-28 : Detroit, Michigan, United States)

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Warrendale, PA SAE International 1994

Summary:

Today, automobiles exemplify how plastics can provide significant benefits to designers, manufacturers, and end-users. At the same time, vehicles today embody the environmental questions confronting the automotive manufacturer and the material supplier. Can our vehicles be recycled or recovered at the end of their service lives, and how can these products be effectively and efficiently reclaimed?The PolyUrethanes Recycle and Recovery Council (PURRC) was founded in September 1990, a unit of the Polyurethane Division of the Society of the Plastics Industry, Incorporated to help answer these questions. PURRC's mission is to identify commercially viable technologies for recycling and/or recovering polyurethanes to promote feasible recovery technologies and to communicate that polyurethane products are recyclable and recoverable.This paper reviews the steps that the polyurethane industry is taking to provide the automotive industry with answers to the recycle/recovery issue.One of PURRC's initial foci has been recovering polyurethane foam from automotive seating.PURRC conducted a pilot dismantling project to examine the economics and infrastructure requirements for removing flexible foam from post consumer car seats at the dismantler level. The recovered foam was provided to a manufacturer who was able to incorporate up to 100% of the recovered foam into commercial carpet underlay.To investigate new end uses, recovered foam was also cryrogencally ground and used in a pilot scale trial, where up to approximately 20% of the foam was added to the production of slabstock, currently used in automotive seating and furniture.Other studies and results covered include:

Notes:

Vendor supplied data

Publisher Number:

940221

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license