Sp. Ladany et Kc. So, OPTIMAL RECYCLING OF WASTE MATERIALS IN A PLASTIC EXTRUSION PRODUCTION PROCESS, European journal of operational research, 79(1), 1994, pp. 13-24
Citations number
11
Categorie Soggetti
Management,"Operatione Research & Management Science
In a plastic extrusion production process, waste materials are created
, reground and mixed with virgin plastic raw materials for use in the
subsequent production cycles. The recycling of these waste materials h
elps to reduce the cost of using the more expensive virgin raw materia
ls. However, the yield of the overall extrusion process decreases as a
result. In this paper we develop a model to determine the optimal num
ber of regrinding cycles for reusing these waste materials. The object
ive is to maximize the average profit per production batch. Analytical
results are derived to compute the optimal number of cycles efficient
ly. Two characterizations of the melting index deterioration, which af
fects the yield of the extrusion process, are studied in detail. Numer
ical examples are provided to illustrate the results and to analyze th
e impact of various parameters on the optimal solutions.