precious plastic by dave hakkens: open-source and DIY plastic recycling machines

precious plastic by dave hakkens: an open-source plastic recycling workshop
‘extrusion’ open-source machine
all images courtesy dave hakkens

dave hakkens, the same designer responsible for the phonebloks concept has introduced his latest project, ‘precious plastic‘, a set of plastic machines developed for users to set up a small scale plastic workshop. conceived as an open-source solution, the collection of DIY machinery is based on general industrial techniques and made to work with recycled bits of PET or PP. the current series of interventions includes ‘injection’, ‘rotational’, ‘extrusion’ and ‘shredder’. the ‘extrusion’ machine has been set up for extruding lines, shapes or possible 3D printer filaments. ‘shredder plastic is put in the bucket, the screw inside the tube presses the flakes forwards and the heating elements melt the plastic along the way,’ says hakkens, ‘the outcome of this process is a line of molded plastic – the form depends on the shape of the nozzle.’

video courtesy dave hakkens

‘rotational’ open-source machine

often used to create large hollow objects, hakkens developed a rotational molding device similar to those used in the plastic industry, only smaller. the ‘rotational’ machine is built of an old oven which heats the mould inside and can turn 360 degrees.

‘injection’ open-source machine

‘injection molding is the most commonly used technique in the plastic industry,’ adds hakkens. ‘usually these machines are extremely quick – this one is much slower and more manual, but can still produce a product every couple of minutes. the inserted plastic warms up and is then pressed inside a mould.’

‘shredder’ open-source machine

originally used to shred production waste and put this back into the production-line straight away, the ‘shredder’ machine was re purposed from the current plastic industry. ‘it can be quite tough to get your hands on one, the plan is to develop a machine like this as well -a low speed, powerful, efficient plastic shredder.’