Recycling of plaster of Paris

African Journal of Disability

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Recycling of plaster of Paris
 
Creator Shiyo, Servas Nagels, Jozef Shangali, Harold G.
 
Subject Prosthetics and Orthotics Recycling POP; calcination time and temperature; compressive test; setting time and reusability of POP; working properties of recycled POP
Description Background: Plaster of Paris (POP) is being used in different ways in the field of medicine, dentistry and rehabilitation. One of its uses is in the manufacture of models of body segments in prosthetics and orthotics. It is used as a one-off procedure in which the used material is dismantled and discarded. The disposal of discarded materials does not allow easy decomposition which then pollutes the environment. It is not known whether this material could be reused if recycled.Objectives: The main objective of the study was to recycle POP models and determine its reuse in producing models with identical qualities, and thus reduce environmental pollution.Method: The procedure adopted was to break discarded models into small pieces, remove impurities and dirt; then the sample models were milled, washed, dried and pulverised. The POP models were heated to evaporate crystalline water in order to determine for how many times it could be recycled while retaining the desired strength, setting time and working characteristics.Results: The recycled POP reached higher setting temperatures and was stronger in terms of compressive strain and strength than the virgin POP. The highest temperature recorded for recycled POP was 40°C, which was higher than that for virgin powder (32.5°C). Testing compressive strength of all cylinders in all groups showed that the average compressive strength of the recycled powder mixed with water in a ratio of 1:1 was 2407 KN/m² and the ratio of 2:3 resulted in a compressive strength of 1028 KN/m², whereas the average compressive strength of virgin POP powder mixed with water in a ratio of 1:1 was 1807 KN/m² and the ratio of 2:3 resulted in a compressive strength of 798 KN/m². There were no differences in working properties between the recycled POP and the virgin POP.Conclusion: It was therefore concluded that under controlled conditions, such as grinding size, heating temperature, time and avoidance of contamination, used POP could be continuously recycled, resulting in stronger and workable casts.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor MoveAbility-ICRC and KCMU-College
Date 2020-05-27
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — experimental laboratory based study
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ajod.v9i0.503
 
Source African Journal of Disability; Vol 9 (2020); 9 pages 2226-7220 2223-9170
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://ajod.org/index.php/ajod/article/view/503/1355 https://ajod.org/index.php/ajod/article/view/503/1354 https://ajod.org/index.php/ajod/article/view/503/1356 https://ajod.org/index.php/ajod/article/view/503/1353
 
Coverage Africa 2015-2017 Numbers
Rights Copyright (c) 2020 Servas Shiyo, Jozef Nagel, Harold G. Shangali https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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