The designers integrated an experimental solid surface table top made out of recycled plastics. The inspiration of working with recycled plastic came from a forum called Precious Plastics, Dave Hekkens, the founder of precious plastic who introduced DIY machines for reprocessing plastics. This led the team to experiment with melting waste products in the domestic ovens.
There is abundance of waste plastics products in our surroundings. As plastic cannot biodegrade, but can be reheated and remoulded into new products and hence the team thought of experimenting with the waste plastic. They then collected the waste products, shredded them with the help of a shredder in their workshop. These granules were then wrapped in a baking paper to avoid getting stuck with the tray. Also a flat weighted metal surface acting as a press plate was kept on top.
This was then baked for 30 minutes, eventually getting a flat sheet. The surfaces of the sheet were not even and glossy, hence they had to sand the surface. After manufacturing their own Heat Press, the set of experiments performed were rigorous. After a lot of trial and error, they were able to achieve sheets with even thickness and glossy surface. The manufacturing of sheets are result of equal contribution from the machine and hand craftsmanship by which the unique texture have been created and hence every sheet will be unique and will have a story to tell. The final sheet was made from 2nd and 3rd grade recycled polypropylene.
Designers- Jaymin Panchasara, Vivek Prakash
www.fifthcolumn.in
This article was first published in March'17 issue of Surfaces Reporter.
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