JP2001321691A - System for separating and sorting composite material - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for separating and sorting all composite scraps such as of a spent electronic information device in the inside of a factory and for utilizing them as high-quality recovered articles. SOLUTION: The composite scraps are reduced in volume and then separated by using a special single separator into metallic scraps and plastic scraps. Since the plastic scraps are classified by the properties of plastics, the scraps are crushed by a wet crusher to <=20 mm sizes and recovered by a gravity sorter. The ferrous metal is recovered by a magnetic separator before or after the metallic scraps are fed into a separation tank. The nonferrous metal is recovered from the separation tank separately from the ferrous metal, and especially the aluminous metal is recovered by setting a special aluminum removing and recovering machine. The other remaining nonferrous metal, or the like, are recovered as the raw material for making nonferrous metal.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a process for discarding O
A composite materials such as A appliances or home appliances are collected as recycled materials, or composite materials that are collected for separation by material, for example, OA equipment such as copiers, personal computers, telephones, televisions, VCRs, Of household electric appliances such as air conditioners, refrigerators, and washing machines, general waste discharged from households or businesses as garbage, or industrial waste discharged from production factories, etc., polyethylene terephthalate (hereinafter referred to as “PET”) Bottle or polystyrene resin (hereinafter referred to as "PS") or polyethylene resin (hereinafter referred to as "PE") or acrylonitrile butadiene styrene resin (hereinafter referred to as "ABS") or polyvinyl chloride (hereinafter referred to as "PVC") Plastic containers of various materials, iron, aluminum, stainless steel Crushing, separation and sorting of composite materials mixed or bonded together with metals such as metal, copper, etc. or non-ferrous metals without being separated manually by hand The present invention also relates to a technique for recovering plastic materials after separating material materials according to the properties of the materials.

[0002] The technique of the present invention is, for example, after crushing and separation of a composite material mainly containing a metal-based material without separating and recovering plastics by material.
First, the metal-based material is separated in a wet separation tank, and the plastic-based material is pulverized to an appropriate particle size.Then, the plastic-based material is sorted by material type using a wet-type gravity separator, collected, and collected. This is a technology for equipment that manufactures raw materials that can be used as recycled or sorted materials for plastics.

[0003] In general, components of a composite material are mainly formed of a metal-based material and a plastic-based material. There are various forms in which OA equipment and home electric appliances composed of composite materials are discarded and collected as composite waste, but most of them are not collected individually by model, but are miscellaneous and constituent materials of composite waste. It is also collected including other deposits. In particular, plastic containers discharged from homes are attached with organic matter that is residue such as food. In addition, composite waste materials discharged from offices such as office automation equipment are attached with dust such as paper and dust. In order to collect these waste materials as recycled materials or separate them by material, at present, the garbage discharged from households was forced by the user to the waste treatment company by cleaning and waste material types. It has to be collected by a sorting method. In addition, OA equipment discharged from offices and the like after being collected by a processing company or household electrical appliances discarded from homes are separated and separated, and garbage or dust is further used by air washing or the like before being dismantled. It is used as a recycled material for each material or as a separation treatment material by increasing its value.

[0004]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, typical constituent materials of OA equipment or home electric appliances are as shown in the attached table "Proportion of main materials of plastics and metals of OA equipment / home electric appliances". Some are marked with plastic material and others are not. Therefore, the usual sorting method involves manually disassembling the metal-based material and the plastic-based material, and further sorting the parts whose plastic material is not known from the display or the like. However, many parts are not displayed as shown in the example. In addition, some of the components of recent equipment cannot be manually dismantled because they are completely unitized.

[0005] Recently, there is a technique for separating plastic materials by using water. However, in the conventional method of separating using water, water having a low specific gravity flows quickly according to the flow velocity of the water, and water having a high specific gravity takes advantage of the fact that there is a difference in the specific gravity of the properties of the plastic material. This is a method of separating materials by using the fact that they flow slowly. However, this method cannot reliably separate materials having different properties, and is impossible for a substance having a small specific gravity difference. Therefore, in practice, most of the sorting work methods are manually performed.

Further, plastic containers discarded from homes, restaurants, etc. are separated by the user before collection,
They are collected in a form that they are separately collected by treatment companies. However, this method is not surely separated because a large number of unspecified users perform it. In reality, after being collected, it is further separated manually by a collected factory or the like.

[0007] In particular, refrigerators, washing machines, and the like among home electric appliances have a method that is not manually performed because most of the constituent materials are metallic. The method of directly crushing waste materials and separating them into metal materials and other materials is the most common method of crushing is compression impact crushing by rotary engraving. In this method, by compression, substances other than metals are often recovered as mixed as a compact,
Since the crushed object is recovered as it is fixed without being separated by substance, it is basically to reduce the volume of the object,
This method is called shrinkage reduction, and is not a means of separating and collecting reusable materials. Therefore, according to this method, landfill at the final disposal site is present.

[0008]

Electronic information devices such as personal computers and peripherals, mobile phones, copiers, and facsimile machines are discharged in large quantities as waste due to their relatively short life cycle among durable consumer materials. . The feature of these products is that they are composed of various types of composite materials including various types of plastics. In the volume reduction shredder process, which is a representative of the current mechanization process, only iron is collected and the recycling rate is about 30%. %. This results in the emission of much shredder dust,
Many of them rely on landfill disposal and incineration, resulting in high disposal costs, an increase in the burden on users, and problems with the environment at disposal sites.

The recycling rate of manual disassembly and separation processing has been improved to about 50% on average, but some products include unit parts, such as a floppy (registered trademark) drive, notebook type personal computer, Some products, such as very small electronic information devices, have hermetically sealed products, and it is almost impossible to disassemble them manually.

[0010] Accordingly, the present invention eliminates the problem of the prior art, the separation and collection work by the user who generates the plastic waste, and the separation check work process by the treatment company. In order to reduce as much as possible manual separation at the factory, mixed composite waste materials are collectively sorted and sorted in the factory. Therefore, this method can reduce the burden on the user side and the business side, and reduce the cost.

[0011]

As shown in the above-mentioned case, the basic material composition of the composite waste material is shown. However, it is necessary to separate these materials and further sort them according to the properties of the materials. Is almost impossible with manual work.
Furthermore, it is becoming impossible for unit parts.

Therefore, the present invention resides in separating plastic waste materials according to their properties by a wet specific gravity separator after separating mixed waste materials into individual materials. According to the experiment, among the plastics constituting the OA equipment, PS has a specific gravity of 1.06, and PE has a specific gravity of 1.0.
These two types of plastics were crushed into particles having a particle size of 10 mm to 3 mm and separated by a wet specific gravity separator. As a result, a high recovery rate of 99% was obtained. The fact that a high separation efficiency can be obtained even when the specific gravity difference between the two types of plastics is 0.07 means that ABS generally has a specific gravity of 1.18 to 1.26 and PE
T is 1.76, which indicates that it is sufficiently possible to separate plastics of different properties in a state where these materials are mixed. Further, all the samples were mixed and sorted by the same tester using samples having specific gravities of 1.02, 1.45, and 1.76 and 1.96.
It has been found that each separation efficiency is 99% or more.

[0013] Therefore, in order to improve the recycling rate of plastic waste materials in particular, a technique that greatly influences is a separation and sorting technique for separating materials according to their properties. Particularly, in recent years, since various kinds of composite waste materials have been used, it is extremely difficult to recycle materials to be recovered as raw materials by a conventional simple sorting technique. These are due to the immature sorting technology and the fact that recycling costs far outweigh the value of the material. In recent years, various types of plastics have been included as devices in OA equipment.

For example, in a copy machine, the material composition ratio of plastic was 12% to 15% 10 years ago, but now the material composition ratio is 22% to 25%. Sorting and separating these various types of plastics is a factor that increases the recycling rate.

[0015] Therefore, the technical means of the present invention is that composite waste materials such as OA equipment, home electric appliances and plastic containers are mixed and removed at a collection factory, and parts that are easily dismantled and hazardous materials are removed manually. Cutting, cutting,
This is a system for recovering each material through a separation process. First, the mixed waste materials that have been mixed are subjected to volume-separation or cutting and cutting to a predetermined size in order to separate the individual components of each material and to facilitate the separation process. A special single separator that separates waste materials by material separates mainly metal-based materials and plastic-based materials by material. Next, plastic waste materials and the like are collected by a wet separation tank for collecting materials other than metal-based materials. Further, in order to separate the plastic waste material according to the properties of the plastic, it is a system in which the waste material is pulverized to a particle size of about 20 mm or less by a wet pulverizer and collected by a wet specific gravity separator.
On the other hand, before the metal-based material is fed to the separation tank, the iron-based metal is first recovered by a magnetic separator for recovering iron. The magnetic separator may be attached after the separation tank. The non-ferrous metal recovered from the separation tank is recovered separately from the ferrous metal, and more particularly the aluminum-based metal can be recovered by installing a special aluminum removal and recovery machine. The remaining other non-ferrous metals can be recovered as raw materials for non-ferrous smelting.

In general, the specific gravity of a plastic material is as follows:
It has been found to be in the range of about 0.9 to 2.3.
For example, in general, the specific gravity of polyethylene, styrene resin or acrylic resin is 0.98 to 1.20,
The specific gravity of the vinyl chloride-based resin is 1.35 to 1.4.
5. The specific gravity of a resin system such as a fluorine-based or filled polyester such as a glass fiber or an epoxy resin is 1.47 to 2.
3, and the specific gravity of the plastic material differs depending on the material. Utilizing this difference in specific gravity, while pulsating water and appropriately crushed plastic waste materials in water, specific gravity sorting is performed and plastics with different properties are taken out and collected by property. is there.

[0017]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS First Embodiment FIG. 1 is a process flow sheet for separating and sorting composite waste materials. O that has been generally recovered as composite waste
A equipment or household electric appliances are separated by hand to the minimum necessary. The necessary minimum refers to parts that can be easily removed from the assembled structure, such as doors, trays or lids, and dangerous goods. After removing the parts, the remaining composite waste material structure A is introduced into the processing equipment. Since the structure is relatively large and the parts are firmly connected by bolts, adhesives, pressure bonding, or the like, the press feeder 1 simultaneously performs the coarse crushing by compression and volume reduction.

The volume-reduced and crushed composite waste material is cut into about 200 mm or less by a cutting machine 2 and the components of the component, for example, a metal component and a plastic component, a motor and a shaft or a bearing, a shaft and a rubber ring Cut or cut into shapes that are easy to separate.

The composite waste material scraped by the cutting machine 2 is loaded into a plastic breaker 3 for separating the material into individual pieces. The plastic breaker 3 is not intended to crush the metal-based waste material, but to separate the metal-based material from other materials. However, plastic waste can be crushed.

After the various materials are made into a single material, they are separated into a metallic waste material B and a plastic waste material C by the separation tank 4. Each metallic waste B recovered in the separation tank 4
Has made it possible to further separate into ferrous metal materials and non-ferrous metal materials. Before the feed to the separation tank 4, it is also possible to separate by a magnetic separator for iron recovery.

The plastic waste materials C having different properties are further pulverized by the plastic cutter 5 to about 10 mm or less. The plastic cutter 5 pulverizes the plastic in the water and, at the same time, sends the pulverized plastic waste material C to the draining screen 13. The plastic waste material C given an appropriate wetness is sorted and collected by the plastic sorter 6 as, for example, heavy specific gravity plastic D, medium specific gravity plastic E, and light specific gravity plastic F.

The special pulsation generating valve 8 and the air blower 7 are ancillary equipment for giving water pulsation to the plastic sorter 6. Reference numerals 9, 10 and 11 denote a heavy specific gravity plastic recovery device, a medium specific gravity plastic recovery device and a light specific gravity plastic recovery device for performing dehydration and the like of recycled plastics sorted by quality.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the composite waste material is separated and sorted by the process shown in FIG. 1 without compressing the composite waste material by hand, leading to compression crushing, volume reduction, cutting, and cutting. After the separation, the metal-based waste material B and the plastic-based waste material C are separated by a wet separation tank, crushed to an appropriate particle size by a wet plastic cutter, and then a plurality of plastic materials are collected by a plastic separator. Is the process of doing

Therefore, in the present invention, in the separation / sorting process flow sheet shown in FIG. 1, the waste material is separated for each material by the plastic breaker 3 and then the wet type separation tank 4 is installed, so that the wet type plastic cutter 5 is used. It is characterized in that only the plastic is sorted by the property of the material by the plastic sorter 6.

Second Embodiment FIG. 2 shows the structure of the wet separation tank 4 shown in FIG. 1 for separating metal waste B and plastic waste C. The separation tank 4 is composed of two chambers, a pulsation generation chamber 4c and a plastic recovery chamber 4e. The pulsation generation chamber 4c is a recovery chamber for the metallic waste material B. A bar screen 4a and a movable bar screen 4b are provided above the pulsation generation chamber 4c.

The composite waste material A is charged from the upper end surface of the pulsation generation chamber 4c. The composite waste material A singulated for each material is used for pulsation by pulsating water on the bar screen 4a or
Given the pulsation of the water mixed with air, the metallic waste B is collected near the bar screen 4a and moved to the discharge side by the pulsation effect of the water. The metal material waste outlet is a bar screen 4a and a movable bar screen 4b.
Is discharged from the gap between Movable bar screen 4b
The gap is adjusted by the discharge adjuster 4f. The discharge adjuster 4f has a structure capable of changing the installation angle of the movable bar screen 4b in a sliding motion or intermittently. The plastic waste material deposited on the upper part of the movable bar screen 4b is sent to the plastic collecting chamber 4e by the scraper 4d.
The pulsation generator 4g and the air intake device 4h are auxiliary devices that generate pulsations of water using air.

[0027]

The present manual separation method is particularly suitable for OA.
Diversification of constituent materials makes it difficult to separate composite waste materials for equipment, and unitization makes it impossible to disassemble by material. In addition, the current volume shredding method, which is a mechanical crushing method, generates only a large amount of shredder dust and is not a means for recycling and utilizing materials. INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention has an effect of improving a material recycling rate by performing most of the sorting steps by a machine, thereby enabling environmental issues and effective reuse of materials. Separation of metal waste materials and plastic waste materials using water is a low-cost separation treatment method. In addition, in the case of plastic waste materials, the stable quality of the recovered materials can be obtained by adopting the wet specific gravity separation method, and the material It is a technology that enables reuse of resources and can contribute to resource reuse and environmental issues.

[0028]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a composite waste material according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 4 is a composite waste material treatment process flow sheet showing separation of a single substance and pulverization of a plastic.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing a structure of a separation tank according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Example] This is a table showing the composition ratio of plastics and metals in OA equipment and home electric appliances.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Press feeder 2 Cutting machine 3 Plastic breaker 4 Separation tank 5 Plastic cutter 6 Plastic sorter 7 Air blower 8 Special pulsation generation valve 9 Heavy specific gravity plastic recovery device 10 Medium specific gravity plastic recovery device 11 Light specific gravity plastic recovery device 12 Dewatering screen 13 Draining Screen 14 Waste material input machine A Composite waste material material B Metal waste material C Plastic waste material D Heavy specific gravity plastic E Medium specific gravity plastic F Light specific gravity plastic 4a Bar screen 4b Movable bar screen 4c Pulsation generation chamber 4d Scraper 4e Plastic recovery chamber 4f Discharge Regulator 4g Pulsation generator 4h Air intake device

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission Date] August 8, 2000 (200.8.8)

[Procedure amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] Brief description of drawings

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a composite waste material according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 4 is a composite waste material treatment process flow sheet showing separation of a single substance and pulverization of a plastic.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing a structure of a separation tank according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Description of Signs] 1 Press feeder 2 Cutting machine 3 Plastic breaker 4 Separation tank 5 Plastic cutter 6 Plastic sorter 7 Air blower 8 Special pulsation generating valve 9 Heavy specific gravity plastic recovery device 10 Medium specific gravity plastic recovery device 11 Light specific gravity plastic recovery device Reference Signs List 12 dewatering screen 13 draining screen 14 waste material input machine A composite waste material raw material A 'composite waste material crushed raw material B metallic waste material C plastic waste material D heavy specific gravity plastic E medium specific gravity plastic F light specific gravity plastic 4a bar screen 4b movable bar screen 4c pulsation generation Chamber 4d Scraper 4e Plastic recovery chamber 4f Discharge regulator 4g Pulsation generator 4h Air intake device

[Procedure amendment 2]

[Document name to be amended] Drawing

[Correction target item name] All figures

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

FIG.

FIG. 2

[Procedure amendment 3]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0028

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

The examples show the composition ratio of plastic and metal materials for OA equipment and home electric appliances. For plastics, especially for OA equipment other than refrigerators and the like, which are mostly made of metal-based materials. It has been found that since most of them are not displayed, it is difficult to perform the separation process by manual separation.

[Example]

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) B29B 17/02 B09B 5/00 ZABL F-term (Reference) 4D004 AA46 AC05 BA05 BA07 CA03 CA04 CA09 CA10 CB05 CC03 4D071 AA20 AA46 AB14 AB23 CA01 CA03 CA05 DA15 4F301 BA17 BE31 BE32 BF09 BF12 BF26 BF31

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. For plastic articles such as personal computers, copiers, telephones and home appliances, for example, made of composite materials, in order to dispose them after use or to recycle individual materials, use plastics. Combined use of compression crushing, cutting or cutting and impact crushing of composite waste materials and metal-based materials and separating them, and then separating and collecting plastic-based materials and metal-based materials using a wet specific gravity separator System to do. 2. A system for separating and recovering a plastic-based material from a plastic-based material and a metal-based material after separating an article made of a composite material by the method according to claim 1. 3. A method of separating a composite waste material of a metal material and a plastic material contained in the composite material, wherein the composite waste material is intermittently supplied with air through an air hole provided in a water tank, and is repeatedly exhausted. A system provided with a separation tank having a function of pulsating water via air or mixing and stirring air and water to separate a metal material and a plastic material, and the separation tank.