Consemotion & Recycling, Vol. 10, No. 4, pp. X5-272, 1987. 0361- 3658/87 %3.00+ .

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Printed in Great Britain. Pergamon Press plc

RECYCLING OF WASTE PVC LEATHER AND

PVC URETHANE IN THE AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY

SEIJI MIYAMA
Oppama Plant, Nissan Motor Co. Ltd, I Natsushima-cho, Yokosuka 237, Japan

Abstract - Waste plastics are low in scrap value in the automobile industry and are most difficult to
dispose of for reutilization.
The waste plastics have been disposed of by incineration and reclamation as measures for preventing
industrial pollution, but these measures involved various problems and quite a different idea could be
successfully developed to effectively reutilize them.
The case of reutilization is introduced here.

1. INTRODUCTION

The waste PVC leather and PVC urethane discharged from the Seat Fabrication Shop in our
plant amounts to about 450 tons per year, and its disposal had been a serious problem. Burning
generates black smoke, and also corrosive gases, such as hydrogen chloride, which are
detrimental to furnace walls. Disposal for land reclamation involves many problems, such as
lack of biodegradability and of resulting weak ground, owing to poor consolidation.
The case introduced here started from the necessity of taking measures against pollution, and
is still practised now for recycling of wastes in automobile parts.

2. DECISION TO REUTILIZE THE WASTE

The waste is generally discharged as a mixture and cannot be reused in its existing state.
Reutilization of waste as a resource must start from its separation into constituent materials. It
is not too much to say that a successful separation reaches halfway to successful reutilization as
a resource.
Examination of how wastes similar to ours (Fig. 1) are recycled in other industries showed
that thick waste PVC leather discharged after the production of shoes and bags is separated into
PVC grains and cloth by crushing and air classification, to reuse the PVC grains as a raw
material for the product. By contrast, waste PVC leather and PVC urethane discharged from
our plant comprises fragments generated in the production of car seats and interior products,
and includes a large amount of thin cloth coated with thin PVC, most of which has urethane
foam sewn together as a cushion. How to separate the mixture wastes efficiently into their
constituent materials was a large problem, and examination started from this aspect.
Concurrently, possible applications of recovered PVC and urethane were also examined, as
described below.
In general, the principal difficulty in the reutilization of wastes is the difficulty of
maintaining continuity. One of the reasons concerns profitability, but a more serious fact is
that demand continually changes, depending on the situation for the users of processed wastes.
Processed waste suppliers wish demand to continue, but this is difficult to achieve. Therefore,
our plant decided to use the wastes for our automobile parts with the greatest importance
attached to continuity.
265
266 SEIJI MIYAMA
Glued

(Waste PVC leather)

Soft urethane foam Glued

(b)

Cloth (Waste urethane)

I
Sewn

(Waste PVC urethane)

Fig. 1. Kinds of wastes from seat production.

Examination Present
Examination for ) on the method
\ flow
reutilization for separating
constituent
materials

Fig. 2. Recycling flow.

Materials
to be crushed

Fig. 3. Crushing test equipment.

Successful research and development for the preparation of automobile parts from the waste
took place under the cooperation of a parts maker. In addition, an efficient air separation and
recovery device was developed, and regular operation began from 1975. The recycling system
has been used from that date, although the applied parts, and the share of processing, have
changed. Figure 2 shows the recycling flow.
 RECYCLING OF WASTE PVC 261
Table 1. Experimental results of crushing

Crushed Period Crushing Crusher

No. Sample quantity of time capability current Crushed state
(kg) (min) (kg hr-‘) (A)
Waste PVC 17.0 8.0 127 20-30 Urethane pieces are too large.
leather
1
Waste PVC 13.2 13.5 58.6 20-30 Separation from PVC is poor.
urethane
Waste PVC 19.0 10.0 114 30-50 If urethane can be blown away
leather when held in the hand,
then PVC can be easily separated.
2
Waste PVC 7.0 8.0 52.5 30-50 Cloth adheres to PVC.
urethane

Waste PVC teather and PVC urethane

/
-7
-
Feed convevor YI
I 0 Cocyse ausher I Fan

thane
chips

equipment has registered in Japan.1

Fig. 4. Materials separation and recovery equipment flow.

3. EXAMINATION OF THE METHOD FOR SEPARATING MATERIALS

The wastes discharged from the shop include three types, as shown in Fig. 1. Of these, sewn
three-layer articles (c) are generated in the largest quantities.
Waste is no more than that, if it is not processed for separation into constituent materials. As
for the methods for separating the constituent materials, for type (a), erosion of cloth by
sulfuric acid is well known, but has not been used practically for (b) and (c) as far as we know.
It was therefore necessary to develop a new separation method.
268 SEIJI MIYAMA

Waste PVC leather Matertat selecting

Waste urethane

Waste cloth
f i ncinerated)

Fig. 5. Breakdown of recovered materials.

Table 2. Separation standard

Recovered Form Specific gravity

material
To be crushed into Purchased raw material
lo- 30 mm square pieces. (urethane 100%) - 0.02
Urethane Chips
To contain less than about Recovered
30 wt % of PVC and cloth. material - 0.065

To be grains of 1 - 3 mm
(the cloth adhering to
the back of PVC may remain
PVC attached)
Grains
Not to contain urethane.

Molded head rest

Moided arm rest

FiUer for trunk mat

Fig. 6. Regions of applied parts (example).

It was concluded th# the most orthodox method, i.e. of ‘crushing and air separation* would
be the optimum, on the precondition that the recovered constituent materials are not changed in
the material.
 RECYCLING OF WASTE PVC 269

(a) Molding of head rest and arm rest

Urethane chips.. ., 85%

Mold _ Hot _
Worsted.. 10% - Mixing - Product
fiiling press
Binder.. 2 (I

(b) Production of trunk mat

Table 3. Processed tonnage and recovered tonnage

Kind of waste Input Kind of output

material
Waste PVC leather 465 Urethane chins 36%
437tyr-’
Waste urethane t yr-’ PVC grains 72t
28 tyr-’
Waste PVC urethane Waste cloth
(incinerated)

Table 4. Annual processing cost

Equipment investment 73.4 million yen

Depreciation 16.9 million yen
Standing Tax, interest and insurance 0.7 milhon yen
expenses
Sub-total 17.6 million yen
cost Repair expenses 3 .O million yen
Electric power charge 3.4 million yen
Variable Labor cost 10.8 million yen
expenses
Sub-total 17.2 million yen
Total 34.8 million ven

Unit cost of processing = ~~~~~~~~i$n~t = 34’8 y$i,, yen * 80 yen kg-’

Separation tests
Based on the above conclusion, it was decided to make preliminary tests for obtaining data
for determining the specifications of machines.
(i) Samples.
PVC film + cloth, glued (waste PVC leather).
(PVC film + cloth) + (urethane + cloth), sewn (waste PVC urethane).
270 SEIJI MIYAMA
Table 5. Amount of annual cost reduction, by material

cost
Material used Product reduction Annual Annual cost
cost per weight consumption reduction
(I) (2) (1) x (2)
When newly bought 513
material is used yen kg-’
Urethane 108 365 000 kg 39.4
yen kg-’ million yen
When regenerated 405
material is used
187
When newly bought yen kg-’
material is used
PVC 105
yen kg-’ 72 OOOkg 7.6
million yen
When regenerated
material is used 82
Total 47.0
million yen
Overall effect
Total annual cost reduction (Table 5) - Total annual processing cost (Table 4) = Effect.
47.0 million yen - 34.8 million yen = 12.2 million yen y-‘.

(ii) Crushing test equipment. Figure 3 shows the outline of the equipment.
Crusher: rotary shear type, blade width 450 mm, with two fixed blades and five rotating
blades, consumption 15 kW.
Exhaust fan: turbo type, 23 m3 min-‘, 95 mm Aq, 0.75 kW.
Recovery cyclone: barrel 600 diameter.
(iii) Experimental results. As shown in Table 1, the recovery of urethane alone could be
achieved by crushing only. However, the recovery of PVC required separation from the cloth,
and it was found that actual operation required the additional use of a fine crusher.

4. OUTLINE OF THE MATERIALS SEPARATION AND RECOVERY EQUIPMENT

The following equipment was developed on the basis of the results of the above separation
tests, considering workability, costs.
Figure 4 shows the flowsheet.

Process
(i) Waste PVC leather and PVC urethane are put into a coarse crusher. Each piece should be
about 300 mm square; larger pieces should be cut beforehand.
(ii) The coarse crusher comminutes to 10 - 30 mm square pieces, and allows them to fall onto
a vibrating conveyor.
(iii) Air is sent from the underside of the vibrating conveyor, to agitate the crushed pieces.
(iv) Light urethane chips are recovered by suction nozzles.
(v) Heavy PVC is further crushed into 1 to 3 mm grains by fine crushers and recovered by a
classifier.

Breakdown of recovered materials

The balance of the recovered materials is as in Fig. 5.
 RECYCLING OF WASTE PVC 271

States of recovered materials

If the waste PVC leather and PVC urethane were separated more accurately into the
respective constituent materials, they would find wider application, but on the other hand, at a
higher cost. Compromise is inevitable in this respect.
Our plant uses the separation standards shown in Table 2.

SELECTION OF APPLICABLE AUTOMOBILE PARTS

The use of the processed waste for automobile parts is limited in application, and parts using
the processed wastes should be the less-visible and less-functionally important. From this point
of view, parts were examined by the value analysis technique, and the most suitable ones
selected.
Applied parts:
Urethane chips: molded head rest and arm rest;
PVC grains: filler for trunk mat.
Figure 6 shows the regions of the applied parts.
These parts were then molded, using the purchased raw materials only. As a matter of course,
careful tests had been repeated by trial production for the parts, before regular production. The
tests included:
(i) Sensory tests for resiliency, cushioning, etc.
(ii) Interlayer peeling tests between different materials.
(iii) Durability tests.
These tests were repeated to decide the optimum mixing ratios.

6. PRODUCTION OF AUTOMOBILE PARTS

The head rest, arm rest and trunk mat are produced according to the flow shown in Fig. 7.

7. QUALITY OF REGENERATED MATERIALS

Provided that automobile parts display their proper commercial functions, it is of no

importance whether they are made of purchased materials or regenerated materials. In our case,
there was the rather unexpected result that the regenerated materials were better. For example,
when a conventional product of urethane (100% purchased) needs a certain hardness, aggregate
has to be added as required. However, the mixing of the regenerated material provides the
proper hardness, eliminating the need for adding aggregate. As a considerable side effect, the
cushioning property can be freely changed by changing the mixing ratio.

8. COSTS

The actual statistics in our plant were as given below.

(i) Processed tonnage and recovered tonnage are listed in Table 3.
(ii) Annual processing costs are listed in Table 4.
(iii) Annual cost reduction, by material, are listed in Table 5.
The overall effect is (Total annual cost reduction) - (Total annual processing cost). Our
plant achieves an annual positive effect of about 12.2 million yen. Including the expenses for
land reclamation executed in the past, the effect corresponds to about 40 million yen.
212 SEIJI MIYAMA

9. CONCLUSIONS

As described above, the reutilization of wastes in the plant began from the necessity of taking
measures to prevent pollution; however, waste is now indispensably required as a raw material.
The system is not, however, problem-free. In the past decade, the seats have been enhanced
in quality, a drastic reduction in the use of PVC, and the use of woven fabric which is difficult
to recycle, is increasing. In addition, the cost of solid moldings, using no regenerated material,
has declined, causing severe competition with the regenerated materials. The reutilization of
wastes as resources is not always simple.
The recycling of wastes as a resource is always confronted by such difficulties. This case has
the advantage that the regenerated materials are used for mass-produced motor vehicles, which
provide a continuous demand.
At our plant, we intend both to continue this project and to develop new applications.