Study of Microwave-Active Composite Materials to Improve the Polyethylene Rotomolding Process

The present paper reports on the formulation and characterization of composite coating materials susceptible to microwave (MW) heating to investigate their application in making the rotomolding process (RM) more energy efficient. SiC, Fe₂SiO₄, Fe₂O₃, TiO₂ and BaTiO₃ and a methyl phenyl silicone resin (MPS) were employed for their formulations. Experimental results showed that the coatings with a ratio of 2:1 w/w of inorganic/MPS are the most MW-susceptible materials. To test the coatings in working mimicking conditions, they were applied to molds, and polyethylene samples were manufactured by MW-assisted laboratory uni-axial RM and then characterized by calorimetry, infrared spectroscopy and tensile tests. The results obtained suggest that the coatings developed can be successfully applied to convert molds employed for classical RM process to MW-assisted RM processes.