OPTIMIZING SOME DESIGN PARAMETERS TO BUILD A MACHINE MODEL TO SEPARATE PLASTIC BAGS FROM HOUSEHOLD WASTE

Abstract

Plastic bags in household waste are one of the factors causing serious environmental pollution. The problem of classifying plastic bags from household waste
for recycling and separate treatment is an urgent need today. This paper introduces a study on optimizing some design parameters for building a model of a
machine to separate plastic bags from domestic waste. The objective of this model is to obtain the largest percentage of plastic bags and the smallest percentage
of impurities in them. The simulation tool in SolidWork is used in this study to determine the appropriate structure and size of the drum - an important component
of the machine. The survey experiments performed allow to determine the structural and technological parameters that have the greatest impact on the
machine's working efficiency. These parameters are the air flow pressure of the pneumatic nozzle (p), the horizontal distance between the pneumatic nozzle
and the center of the drum (dX), and the height of the air nozzle relative to the center of the drum (dH). The study is carried out with a 3-variable, 3-level Taguchi
experimental design. Gray relational analysis (GRA) combined with Taguchi technique is applied for multi-object optimization in order to achieve the largest
percentage of plastic bags and the smallest percentage of impurities at the same time. The optimal set of parameters (p, dX, dH) is determined to achieve the
best working efficiency of the machine.