Recycling of waste epoxy-polyester powders for foam production

This paper proposes a new foaming technology (solid-state foaming) to produce structural foams from waste thermosetting resins. The proposed technology is easy and does not require specific and expensive equipments. Solid tablets are produced by cold compaction of resin powder, and foam by heating in an oven. Composite foams can be produced by mixing fillers and resin powder before the cold compaction. In the experiment, an epoxy-polyester (EP-PE) resin powder, deriving from the waste of a manufacturer of domestic appliances, was used with montmorillonite (MMT) particles. Resulting foams with a filler content ranging from 0 to 10 wt% were characterized in terms of physical and mechanical properties (by compression tests). Although the effect of the MMT content seems to be negative for the adopted resin, the feasibility of producing composite foams by recycling waste industrial powders is shown. The properties of the unfilled foams are sufficient for many industrial applications.