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US 11,872,776 B2Granted
Methods for recovering expanded polymer tooling
AssigneeThe Boeing Company
InventorsXiaoxi Wang, Gary Ernest Georgeson, Jonathan A. Santiago
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Abstract
Methods of recovering and/or recycling expanded polymer tooling, the methods including collecting expanded polymer tooling, reducing the collected expanded polymer tooling into smaller particles, treating the reduced expanded polymer tooling in order to yield an at least partially purified recovered polymer composition, and then collecting the at least partially purified recovered polymer composition. The at least partially purified recovered polymer composition can then be used to form new expandable polymer tooling.
Claims12
A method for recycling an expanded polymer composition, comprising:
- collecting the expanded polymer composition;
- reducing the collected expanded polymer composition into smaller particles;
- treating the reduced expanded polymer composition to yield an at least partially purified recovered polymer composition, including:
- softening or dissolving the reduced expanded polymer composition with a nonpolar solvent, and
- subsequently treating the reduced expanded polymer composition with a polar solvent in order to remove one or more foaming agents from the polymer composition;
- and
- collecting the at least partially purified recovered polymer composition.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.