The development of composites consisting of wood fibers and recycled plastics offers not only an opportunity to utilize an abundant natural resource but also a means to alleviate the serious plastics disposal problem. In this work, aspen fibers are incorporated into recycled high density polyethylene with a co‐rotating inter‐meshing twin‐screw extruder to study processing‐property relationships. Tensile, impact, and flexural strengths are measured as functions of fiber concentration. The effects of fiber pretreatment, screw configuration, and compounding temperature on the properties of composites are discussed.
The influence of location and spacing of reverse screw element(s) on specific mechanical energy input and product attributes during twinscrew extrusion of rice flour and pink salmon blends was investigated. Incorporation of reverse screw element(s) increased specific mechanical energy, expansion ratio and water solubility index; but decreased bulk density and Warner-Bratzler shear stress. Opposite trend was observed with increasing fish content except for shear stress, which was little affected either for rice flour or its blends with 30% fish solids in the expansion ratio range 5 to 10. Linear relationships were found between shear stress and bulk density and between solubility index and specific mechanical energy.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.