Abstract

JOHN, Ávila et al. Recovery of Aluminum from Blister Packaging by Thermomechanical Means. Rev Politéc. (Quito) [online]. 2023, vol.51, n.1, pp.67-76. ISSN 2477-8990.  https://doi.org/10.33333/rp.vol51n1.06.

An aluminum recovery process was proposed by heating the blister packs used in the pharmaceutical industry, Push through Blister (type 1). The method consisted of using an electric muffle to break the bonds that hold the aluminum sheets and the polymer together without degrading it. The temperature and time used to process the materials were 180 °C for 8 minutes. Some samples were reprocessed at 200 °C for 6 minutes and then passed between the rollers of a duo type laminator to extract the aluminum foil. The average percentage of recovered aluminum foil was 66.7%. The recovered aluminum was compacted before melting. For the melting process, flux was added in a ratio of 1% of the total weight of the material to be melted, and 0.25% w/w degasser, the material was melted at 750 ° C for one hour obtaining yield of 90%. The cast metal was subjected to hardness, metallographic and spectroscopy tests, determining that the recovered aluminum resembles a 1XX.X (Si) foundry alloy. Additionally, DSC tests were carried out on four samples of the blisters polymer, with these results it was evident that the major factor for the success of the proposed method is that the polymer behaves clearly as an amorphous material when temperature increases.

Keywords : Aluminum; blister packs; PVC; recycling.

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