Fiber Reinforced Rebar from Recycled Plastic

Recycling of plastic containers has been retarted by the lacck of demand for plastic scrap. This is due to the dearth of products manufactured from recycled plastics. One of the reasons for this is the poor quality surface finish which is obtainable from recycled plastics such as high density polyethylene (HDPE) used in milk and liquid detergent bottles. Another problem facing our country is the decaying infrastructure. Road salt causes concrete reinforcing rods to rust, which causes concrete to spall, thus deteriorating bridges, airfields, and parking garages. Similarly, reinforced cocrete in wharves, locks, and other marine facilities are degraded by the same mechanism. An economical solution to both of these problems can be achieved by recycling plastic resins into glass fiber reinforced composites to maufacture a non-rusting reinforcing bar for concrete structures. This can be achieved economically with existing technology. Orbital Research has already manufactured compression molded glass fiber reinforced HDPE composites made from recycled plastic. This SBIR will develop an extruded/pultruded glass reinforced rebar. In Phase I, extruded/pultruded rebar will be fabricated in small quantities and tested in a laboratory. Phase II will fabricate large quantities of different sizes of rebars and test them in various types of concrete applications.