Plastic Fastening Device Comprising a Recycled Thermoplastic Resin

Abstract

A plastic fastening device that includes a recycled material. In one embodiment, at least a portion of the fastening device includes a blend of two or more thermoplastic resins, at least one of which is a recycled material. The blend may include, for example, a fresh thermoplastic resin and a recycled thermoplastic resin. The fresh thermoplastic resin may include, for example, one or more of a polyethylene (PE), a polyamide (PA), or a polycarbonate (PC). The recycled thermoplastic resin may include, for example, a recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET). In a preferred embodiment, the blend of two or more thermoplastic resins includes a blend of (i) rPET and (ii) one of a low-density polyethylene (LDPE), a LDPE/LLDPE (linear low-density polyethylene) blend and LLDPE, (iii) wherein the rPET constitutes about 88% to 98% of the total material content and the LDPE, the LDPE/LLDPE blend, or the LLDPE constitutes the balance.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The invention relates generally to fastening devices and more specifically to plastic fastening devices and to assemblies of plastic fastening devices.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Plastic fastening devices are commonly used to attach tags to articles of commerce, also known as merchandise, and / or to bind items together. One common type of plastic fastening device is a plastic fastener of the type comprising an elongated flexible filament having a first enlargement at one end thereof and a second enlargement at the opposite end thereof. In one common type of plastic fastener, the first enlargement has the shape of a crossbar, and the second enlargement has the shape of a second crossbar, a paddle, a pin head, or the like. Such fasteners are often molded, typically through injection molding, as part of a unitary fastener clip. An example of such a fastener clip is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,733,657, which is incorporated herein by reference. The clip ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0016]Additives may also be included in the blend, for example, to promote compatibility between the resins.

Problems solved by technology

Fossil fuels are not renewable and, thus, will not be available indefinitely.

Also, the use of fossil fuel derived polymers has become disadvantageous because the price of fossil fuels has increased steadily due to the increase in the worldwide demand for fossil fuels and political instabilities in several countries that export fossil fuels.

Although such devices may contain a small percentage of regrind material, i.e., reused material scrap generated from internal manufacturing processes, they do not contain recycled material content, i.e., material recovered from discarded “waste” product.

Heating alone is insufficient most of the time and because of this plastics must often be of nearly identical composition in order to mix efficiently.

Additionally, when different types of plastics are melted together they tend to phase separate and set into layers which cause structural weakness in the resulting final article constructed out of recycled material.

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