Abstract:
This research aims to study how to improve quality of plastic parts in electric device manufacturing of fluorescent bulb kit. The optimal settings of plastic mixtures of recycled and virgin polycarbonate are determined for optimal mechanical property (i.e., tensile strength) and thermal property (i.e., heat distortion temperature) of plastic parts. Plastic mixtures of four kinds of components are considered as the process factors consisting of recycled polycarbonate--transparent
color; (x1), recycled polycarbonate--white color; (x2), recycled polycarbonate--muddy color; (x3), and virgin polycarbonate (x4). Mixture experiments, response surface methodology, and propagation of error have been employed for the purpose of optimizing plastic mixtures of the four kinds of components. In addition, Monte Carlo simulation method is an analytical tool used to perform a comparison of all operating settings of plastic mixtures in order to obtain the maximum total expected profit. The results of this study have shown that the optimal operating settings of plastic mixtures consist of 20% component x1, 20% component x2, 20% component x3, and 40%
component x4 producing maximum tensile strength and heat distortion temperature. By adjusting the standard deviation of the transmitted variability in the response as a function of the plastic mixtures, the results have shown that the optimal operating settings of plastic mixtures consist of 19.15%
component x1, 36.99% component x2, 27.54% component x3, and 16.33% component x4 producing minimum propagation of error (POE). Furthermore, by performing economic analysis with Monte Carlo simulation technique, the results have shown that the optimal operating settings of plastic mixtures consist of 25% component x1, 35% component x2, 40% component x3, and 0% component x4 with maximum total expected profit
and optimal mechanical property and thermal property compared to the existing operating settings of plastic mixtures.