Tecnologia de fabricação de Eco-compósitos aplicados a produtos artesanais e protótipos em plantas mínimas

Abstract

The use of eco-composites as an alternative to ecodesign strategies is not new, but the technical limitations of current manufacturing and recycling processes often involve expensive or complex machinery or tooling for those of recyclable nature and high cost of inputs that are of a biodegradable nature, which makes it difficult to be popularized and disseminated in minimal plants and in artisanal products. In addition, in composites that can be recycled, there are technical limitations in their processes resulting from the difficult separation of the materials that constitute them or their deterioration due to the processes themselves, this ends up greatly reducing their technical and aesthetic properties and consequent utility when thought for a circular economy where resources are continually reintroduced into the technocycle. This thesis has as main objective to present new methods and processes of manufacture and recycling of eco-composites for the application in eco products. The theoretical basis of the development of the new manufacturing and recycling methods, the selection criteria of the inputs, the preliminary tests and their evaluations are presented. The test samples and the eco products were manufactured with the minimum infrastructure, tools and machines, so as to allow the artisanal production of eco products whose parts, or raw materials, were thought to recycle in the technocycle as remanufacturing, reuse, recycling, or only low environmental impact. Eco-composites use abundant and renewable raw materials obtained from pre and/or post consumption, as well as non-renewable pre and/or post-consumer waste. In the manufacturing processes presented, one of the phases of the composite is in the form of a colloidal dispersion, allowing its easy combination whith the oder phase, which allows a manual conformation. The process uses sensorial evaluation as a form of production control of the process and for the formulation of the proportions between the matrices and the reinforcement material. As examples of eco-composite materials resulting from this technique we can list those that use paper as a reinforcing material, bacterial cellulose, sisal fibers, piaçava fibers, coconut fiber, curauá and jute felts, wood fiber/wood flour. Examples of materials used in the matrix are sodium silicate, carnaúba, pich, collagen, polycaprolactone, poly (vinyl acetate), casein, cellulose acetate, polystyrene, expanded polystyrene, high impact polystyrene and ABS. The processes developed not only consume the minimum energy and water, but also have low or no emission of pollutants. The waste, when produced, was reincorporated into the processes. The result of this research contributes to making the production of eco products and eco-composite manufacturing technology more accessible to the general population, artisans, designers and students, as well as small entrepreneurs, allowing a greater number of people to take the initiative to recycle their own waste or those found in the environment where they live, we help develop the culture of the circular economy and the vision of waste as a resource and no longer as an environmental problem.