JPH0760227A - Recovery of valuables from printed circuit board - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To inexpensively separate and recover valuables such as a metal or the like by grinding a printed circuit board within an average particle size range and separating the ground matter into a metal component such as copper or the like and other components such as a resin, a filler or the like by a specific gravity separator to recover those components. CONSTITUTION:When a printed circuit board containing a glass fiber, a resin and a metal as constituents or the substrate loaded with electronic parts is utilized as resources, the printed circuit board is ground within the average particle size range of 50mum-below 800mum and the ground matter is separated into a metal component such as copper or the like and other components such as a resin, filler or the like to be recovered. That is, the ground matter is separated into a coarse powder containing a large amt. of a hardly ground metal having high specific gravity such as copper and a fine powder containing a large amt. of a component other than a metal such as a resin or filler by classifying operation. The separated metal such as copper is reutilized as metal resources high in value added and the remaining fine ground matter is utilized as the filler of a building material or structural material.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention crushes a molding board such as a printed circuit board used for electric equipment, a printed circuit board on which parts are mounted and a frame material generated in the manufacturing process thereof into a predetermined crushed particle size, and The present invention relates to a method of efficiently separating and recovering a metal such as copper, which is a constituent component thereof, from a resin or a filler by performing specific gravity separation of.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a method of recycling a printed circuit board having glass fiber, resin or metal as a constituent component, or a circuit board on which electronic parts are mounted (hereinafter referred to as a component mounting board). Some methods of incineration and recovery of heat energy are implemented. Further, as a method of recovering valuable materials such as glass fibers from a composite material such as a printed circuit board, there is a method of carbonizing a resin component in these composite materials and then classifying them to separate and recover valuable materials such as copper. . (JP-A-2-88725)

Since various waste gases are generated in the incineration treatment and carbonization treatment of the printed circuit board and the component mounting board as described above, it is necessary to install an advanced waste gas treatment facility. Furthermore, the valuable metal component contained in the printed circuit board or the component mounting board is likely to be oxidized, and there is a concern that the added value when recovered is reduced. As another method for recycling, etching copper or the like on a printed circuit board can be considered, but it is not practical because large-scale equipment is required for wastewater treatment and copper recovery. As described above, a method of efficiently separating and recovering valuable materials such as metals from a printed circuit board, a component mounting board, and a molding residue in the manufacturing process thereof at low cost has been a big problem.

[0003]

A method of recovering valuables from a printed circuit board according to the present invention is a method of separating and recovering valuables from a printed circuit board on which a printed circuit board and components are mounted. 50 μm or more in particle size, 8
It is characterized in that after pulverizing in a range of less than 00 μm, it is separated and recovered into a metal component such as copper and other components such as a resin and a filler by a specific gravity separator.

[0004]

EXAMPLES In the present invention, the average particle size of pulverization is 50 μm or more and less than 800 μm, and if it is less than 50 μm, the metal is finely pulverized with other components too much, and the metal and other components at the time of specific gravity separation are separated. Separation efficiency is reduced, and
If it is m or more, the destructive separation of the metal and other components is insufficient, and the separation efficiency is similarly reduced.

The printed circuit board, the component mounting board, and the molding residue thereof targeted by the present invention are those usually used in electric equipment. The printed circuit board is composed of a resin component, a filler component, and a metal component such as a circuit. Examples of the filler include glass fiber, paper, carbon fiber, etc., and the resin includes epoxy resin, phenol resin, polyimide resin, etc. (Including a curing agent and various additives), as the metal, copper, aluminum, iron,
Examples include nickel and solder (tin and lead). Further, the component mounting board here is an electronic component such as an IC package mounted on the printed board. The molding residue refers to defective products such as a frame material and a copper-clad prepreg during the production of a printed circuit board, and a heat-cured body of these, and those having the same constituent components as the printed circuit board of the product.

As the crusher in the present invention, those having a mechanism of cutting, shearing and impact are preferable, and in particular, a coarse crusher having these mechanisms and crushing together with the mechanism of shearing, impacting and crushing to a predetermined crushing diameter or less. A combination with a fine pulverizer having a mechanism for circulating an object with an air stream is preferable. For example, a combination of coarsely crushed with an Orient Mill manufactured by Orient Co., Ltd. and then finely crushed with an impeller mill manufactured by Seishin Enterprise Co., Ltd., or after roughly crushed with an ordinary shredder,
A combination of finely pulverizing with the above-mentioned impeller mill can be mentioned.

The specific gravity separator is an apparatus for sorting powders by specific gravity, but a dry type classifier is preferable because it is easy to post-process after separating the powders, and a centrifugal classifier is particularly preferable. By this classification operation, the pulverized product is divided into coarse powder and fine powder, and metal such as copper, which is difficult to be pulverized and has a high specific gravity, is contained in the coarse powder, and components other than metal such as resin and filler are contained in the fine powder. Contains a lot. At this time, the ratio of the coarse powder and the fine powder to be recovered differs depending on the separation conditions such as the flow velocity of the air flow and the shape of the device.If the ratio of the coarse powder is extremely large, the concentration of the metal contained in this will decrease. It takes time to refine the metal. Further, if the proportion of the fine powder is extremely large, the amount of metal components remaining in the fine powder increases, and thereafter it becomes difficult to effectively use the fine powder. Therefore, the ratio of the coarse powder to be separated to the whole is preferably 20% by weight or more and less than 70% by weight. Metals such as copper that have been separated in this way can be reused as high-value-added metal resources because they have not been oxidized, and the remaining fillers such as glass fiber and finely pulverized resin can be used as building materials, structural materials, etc. It can be effectively used as a filler.

The experimental data according to the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 1 shows experimental data 1 to 8 and FIG. 2 shows comparative data 1 to 7. Printed circuit board made of glass fiber reinforced epoxy resin with copper pattern (abbreviated as glass epoxy) (composition copper; 30% by weight, glass fiber; 20% by weight, epoxy resin; 50% by weight) Copper pattern paper-phenolic resin (paper -Printed circuit board (abbreviated as phenol) (composition is copper;
30% by weight, 20% by weight of paper; 50% by weight of phenol resin) and a component mounting board (the above-mentioned glass-fiber-reinforced epoxy resin printed board with a copper pattern) on which electronic components such as IC packages and connectors are mounted (composition) Is copper;
33% by weight, the other is epoxy resin, glass fiber, silica powder, etc. Orient Mill Orient Mill (VM50
Type) and finely pulverized to 4 mm or less, and then used as a fine pulverizer as an impeller mill (IMP-4 manufactured by Seishin Enterprise Co., Ltd.).
(00 type) until finely pulverized to the average particle size shown in the table.
Using this as a centrifugal classifier, Micron Classifier (OMC-900 type) manufactured by Seishin Enterprise Co., Ltd. is used to separate into coarse powder and fine powder at the ratios shown in the table. Since copper is concentrated in the separated coarse powder rather than fine powder, copper is recovered from this. The content rate of copper in the recovered powder is shown in the table. Further, here, as the copper recovery rate, the ratio of the content of copper in the coarse powder to the content of copper in the entire printed circuit board is shown.

As is clear from the comparison between the experimental data and the comparative data, when crushed to an average particle size within the range of the present invention and separated by specific gravity, copper is more concentrated in the coarse powder than in other ranges. However, since it can be recovered with high efficiency and the amount of copper remaining in the fine powder is reduced, it can be effectively reused as a filler such as a structural material, a building material, and an insulating material.

[0011]

According to the present invention, the metal and other components can be efficiently separated and recovered from the printed circuit board, the component mounting board, and the molding residue generated at the time of manufacturing these, which has been difficult until now, and is effective as a resource. Can be used effectively.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 Experimental data according to the present invention

[Figure 2] Comparison data

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A method for separating and recovering valuables from a printed circuit board and a printed circuit board on which components are mounted, the specific gravity separator after crushing the printed circuit board in an average particle size of 50 μm or more and less than 800 μm. A method of recovering a valuable material from a printed circuit board, characterized by separating and recovering a metal component such as copper and other components such as a resin and a filler by means of the method.