Introduction
Safety
Equipment or Bill of Materials
- safety glasses
- Thermolyne hot plate
- metal knife/spatula
- 150x75 mm pyrex glass container
- watchglass (6 in. diameter)
- heat resistant work gloves
- dust mask (when using glass)
- K-type thermocouple & reader
- polypropylene granulated from wood chipper
- glass powder
- timer of some sort
Calibration & Tolerances
Operation & Procedure
- turn on hot plate to 5 for heat setting.
- place glass container on hot plate with thermocouple touching bottom of container and watchglass on top, facing downward as lid.
- when thermocouple reads 160 deg Celsius, add polypropylene (PP) and glass powder
- if the PP and glass are added at the same time and heated together, an oxidation reaction will likely occur
- for record-keeping purposes, time how long it takes to melt the plastic/composite.
Shutdown
- trun off hot plate and let it cool down
- also allow composite to cool down after use