WO2002058081A1

WO2002058081A1 - Device for recovering copper from waste electric lines

Info

Publication number: WO2002058081A1
Application number: PCT/KR2002/000071
Authority: WO
Inventors: Yung Soo You
Original assignee: Yung Soo You
Priority date: 2001-01-19
Filing date: 2002-01-17
Publication date: 2002-07-25
Also published as: KR200228495Y1

Abstract

The object of this invention is to provide a device for recovering copper from waste electric lines. This device consists of an electric line intake hopper (2), an extrusion cutting unit (3) cutting the waste electric lines to form waste line bundles, and a feeding unit (4) feeding the line bundles from the cutting unit (3) to a sintering furnace (5) where the bundles are sintered. The sintered line bundles are first crushed by a roll breaker (6), thus being divided into copper wires and sheaths. The copper wires are processed by a chain scraper (7) removing remnant sheaths from the wires. A rotary cleaner (8) removes dust from the copper wires fed from the roll breaker. A magnetic separator (9) removes undesired metal components from the copper wires. The device also has a heat exchanger (10), a desulphurizing/deodorizing unit (11) and a dust collector (12).

Description

DEVICE FOR RECOVERING COPPER FROM WASTE ELECTRIC LINES

Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to a device for recovering copper from waste electric lines, and more particularly, to a device for recovering copper from waste electric lines, collected from cars, personal computers, electric appliances, various automatic devices, and others retired from service in a variety of industrial fields, home, offices, and etc., by appropriately processing the waste lines, thus recycling copper contained in the waste lines collected from the cars, personal computers, electric appliances, various automatic devices, and others retired from service.

Background Art

The kinds of conventional electric lines and the copper contents of the electric lines are as follows. As well known to those skilled in the art, the conventional electric lines are classified into three types, that is, electric power lines, communication lines, and insulated wires. Of these, the power lines are also divided into extra high voltage cables and medium/low voltage cables. The sheaths of such electric power lines use cross-linked polyethylene insulators having extremely high resistance to heat. That is, in order to solve the problem of low heat resistance found in polyethylene, appropriate additives are added to high purity polyethylene, thus cross-linking the polyethylene and producing cross- linked polyethylene insulators used as the sheaths of such power lines. Currently, commercial cables up to 500kV grade and having such cross-linked polyethylene sheaths are available for power distribution through underground cabling networks. The communication lines are so-called "coaxial cables". The coaxial cables play an important role in wire and wireless cable networks, as the information and communication industry is rapidly developed. The coaxial cables have been typically classified into two types: high-frequency coaxial cables and leakage coaxial cables according to use of the networks. The high-frequency coaxial cables are used for the transmission of high density and high quality signals, or in the networks of CATVs (community antenna televisions), wireless base stations and broadcasting transceiving facilities, or in the wireless networks of mobile communication signals, such as microwave signals. The leakage coaxial cables are used in the wireless distribution networks of blanket areas, for example, tunnels, subways, the interiors of buildings.

The insulated wires are produced by coating conductors with insulation materials, such as vinyl, polyethylene, and cross-linked polyethylene, and usually used as distribution lines extending from transformer substations to consumers. The conventional insulated wires are divided into indoor vinyl insulated wires, outdoor vinyl insulated wires, control cables, instrumentation cables, temperature compensating wires, and others, according to their use. The copper contents of the above-mentioned electric lines are as follows.

The electric power lines typically contain 40-50% copper by gross weight, the communication lines typically contain 20% copper by gross weight, and the insulated wires typically contain 20-30% copper by gross weight.

For instance, in the year 1999, Korea's annual production capacity of electric lines reached 1 ,250,000 tons. When assuming that the annual amount of waste electric lines is 20% of the annual production capacity of electric lines, the annual amount of waste electric lines reaches 250,000 tons. But, the waste electric lines have hardly been recycled.

By recovering copper from the waste electric lines, such as electric power lines, communication lines, and insulated wires retired from service in a variety of industrial fields, the generation of industrial wastes is reduced, in addition to the prevention of excessive consumption of natural resources, thus accomplishing a double purpose. However, there has not been proposed a method or device for recovering copper from the waste electric lines, so it is difficult to recycle the waste electric lines.

Generally, in order to recycle the waste electric lines, the following process has to be carried out. First, the waste electric lines must be collected. Next, the waste electric lines undergo a process of compression and crushing to recover only recyclable components, such as copper, from the waste lines. Undesired components undergo a series of processes, for example, a burning process and a burying process. In this case, there may be added a device for preventing the generation of contaminants, or a device for restricting the exhaust of contaminants into the environment.

Above all, some waste electric lines which have high copper contents, are thick and have relatively high work efficiency during copper recovering work, are subjected to a copper recovering process. However, such a process is a mere method of peeling the sheaths off the lines using a simple cutter so as to recover copper from the lines. Through such a process, the copper cannot be satisfactorily recovered from the waste electric lines.

As society is increasingly industrialized, a great number of strands of electric lines which contain copper and have small diameters have been used in various household appliances, personal computers, wiring of cars. However, when the strands of waste electric lines are not recycled, they may generate industrial wastes. Thus, people may be confronted with the difficulty in treating of the industrial wastes. Meanwhile, in the case of the strands of electric lines, such as communication lines, and insulated wires, it is almost impossible to recover copper from them by the conventional cutter, so people avoid colleting the waste strands of electric lines in consideration of economic efficiency. Thus, it is very difficult to recycle the strands of electric lines. In addition, the waste electric lines cause environmental contamination, because the insulated wires and the communication lines are burned and buried together with general refuse, thus generating dioxins.

Due to the rise in the standard of living, there is a rapidly increased demand for various household appliances, cars, personal computers, and etc. The insulated wires and the communication lines are used in such devices. When the useful life span of the insulated wires and the communication lines expires, it is required to collect the waste electric lines and appropriately process them in a safe copper recovering device, thus recovering copper from the waste electric lines.

Disclosure of the Invention

Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a device for recovering copper from waste electric lines, which collects the waste electric lines, such as electric power lines, communication lines, and insulated wires used in several industrial fields, homes, and others, thus restricting the generation of contaminants, and which sinters the sheaths of the waste electric lines and removes the sheaths from copper wires, so copper is recovered from the waste electric lines and recycled, by use of which the recovery rate of copper exceeds 50% or more, therefore conserving natural resources as well as protecting environment.

In order to accomplish the above object, the present invention provides a device for recovering copper from waste electric lines, comprising: an electric line intake hopper for receiving waste electric lines, such as electric power lines, communication lines, and insulated wires into the device; an extrusion cutting unit receiving the waste electric lines from the electric line intake hopper and cutting the waste electric lines to form waste electric line bundles having a predetermined length; a feeding unit conveying the line bundles from the extrusion cutting unit; a sintering furnace sintering and hardening soft sheaths of the line bundles; a roll breaker crushing the sintered line bundles and firstly dividing the line bundles into copper wires and sheaths; a chain scraper secondarily removing remnant sheaths from the copper wires; a rotary cleaner removing dust from the copper wires fed from the chain scraper; a magnetic separator removing undesired metal components from the copper wires fed from the rotary cleaner; a heat exchanger lowering temperature of hot waste gas produced while sintering the soft sheaths of the waste electric line bundles in the sintering furnace; a desulphurizing/deodorizing unit removing odor and noxious gas from the waste gas exhausted from the heat exchanger; and a dust collector colleting dust remaining in the waste gas.

According to this invention, the extrusion cutting unit includes a feeding conveyor carrying the waste electric lines fed from the hopper, a compressing conveyor installed above the feeding conveyor and compressing the waste electric lines while moving along with the feeding conveyor, a stepping box having a mold and pushing compressed lines into a mold to give a desired form to the lines, and a cable cutting unit cutting the lines filled inside the stepping box to form the line bundles having the predetermined length.

In the present invention, the sintering furnace is provided on its inner circumferential surface with a plurality of grooves having a rectangular cross- section such that the soft sheaths of the waste electric line bundles are sintered by hot air passing through the center of the sintering furnace while the waste electric line bundles received in the grooves are rotated along with the sintering furnace, thus sintering and hardening the soft sheaths of the waste electric line bundles with low heat.

In accordance with this invention, the roll breaker includes a first crush roller set primarily compressing and crushing the hardened sheaths of the sintered line bundles, at least one second crush roller set installed below the first crush roller set and secondarily crushing the primarily crushed sheaths of the line bundles, an automatic adjusting unit installed at a position adjacent to the first and second crush roller sets and adjusting an interval of rollers of each of the first and second crush roller sets according to sizes of the waste electric line bundles fed into the roll breaker such that both the first and second crush roller sets maintain appropriate crushing pressures, and an air blower blowing air to the line bundles crushed by the first and second crush roller sets to divide the line bundles into the copper wires and the sheaths.

Further, in this invention, the chain scraper includes a rotary drum having a plurality of chains or paddles therein to remove remnant sheaths from the copper wires separated from the hardened sheaths in the roll breaker. Brief Description of the Drawings

The above and other objects, features and other advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a schematic view of a device for recovering copper from waste electric lines according to this invention;

Fig. 2 is a view showing an extrusion cutting unit included in the device for recovering copper from waste electric lines of Fig. 1 ;

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view of a sintering furnace included in the device for recovering copper from waste electric lines of Fig. 1 ;

Fig. 4 is a transversal sectional view showing the operation of the sintering furnace included in the device for recovering copper from waste electric lines of Fig. 1 ;

Fig. 5 is a view of a roll breaker included in the device for recovering copper from waste electric lines of Fig. 1 ;

Fig. 6 is a front view of a chain scraper included in the device for recovering copper from waste electric lines of Fig. 1 ; and

Fig. 7 is a side sectional view of the chain scraper shown in Fig. 6.

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

Reference should now be made to the drawings, in which the same reference numerals are used throughout the different drawings to designate the same or similar components.

Fig. 1 shows a device for recovering copper from waste electric lines, according to the preferred embodiment of this invention. In Fig. 1, a reference numeral 1 denotes a device for recovering copper from waste electric lines.

This device 1 includes an electric line intake hopper 2 for receiving waste electric lines, such as electric power lines, communication lines, and insulated wires, into the device. An extrusion cutting unit 3 receives the waste electric lines from the electric line intake hopper 2 and cuts the waste electric lines to form waste electric line bundles having a predetermined length. A feeding unit 4 conveys the line bundles from the extrusion cutting unit 3. A sintering furnace 5 sinters and hardens the soft sheaths of the line bundles. A roll breaker 6 crushes the sintered line bundles and firstly divides the line bundles into copper wires and sheaths. A chain scraper 7 secondarily removes remnant sheaths from the copper wires. A rotary cleaner 8 removes dust from the copper wires fed from the chain scraper 7. A magnetic separator 9 removes undesired metal components, such as iron, from the copper wires fed from the rotary cleaner 8. A heat exchanger 10 lowers the temperature of hot waste gas produced while sintering the soft sheaths of the waste electric line bundles in the sintering furnace 5, before the hot waste gas flows into an antipollution facility. A desulphurizing/deodorizing unit 11 removes odor and noxious gas from the waste gas exhausted from the heat exchanger 10. A dust collector 12 collets dust remaining in the waste gas prior to dust being discharged to the atmosphere.

The electric line intake hopper 2 continuously puts the waste electric lines into the device 1 such that the waste electric lines containing copper are fed to a series of processing chambers at a regular rate. As shown in Fig. 2, the extrusion cutting unit 3 compresses and cuts the various waste electric lines in a predetermined size so as to efficiently separate the soft sheaths of the waste electric lines and copper. That is, the extrusion cutting unit 3 feeds the waste electric lines into the subsequent chamber while giving a desired form to the waste electric line bundles.

Referring to Fig. 2, the extrusion cutting unit 3 has a feeding conveyor 13 carrying the waste electric lines fed from the hopper 2. A compressing conveyor

14 is installed above the feeding conveyor 13 and compresses the waste electric lines while moving along with the feeding conveyor 13. A stepping box 15 has a mold and pushes the compressed lines into a mold to give the desired form to the lines. A cable cutting unit 16 repeatedly cuts the line bundles filled inside the stepping box 15 while moving up and down to form the line bundles having the predetermined length. As such, the extrusion cutting unit 3 compresses the waste electric lines while carrying the waste electric lines fed from the hopper 2 by means of the feeding conveyor 13 and the compression conveyor 14, and pushes the compressed lines into the stepping box 15 to give the desired form to the lines. Thereafter, the extrusion cutting unit 3 repeatedly cuts the waste line bundles by the cable cutting unit 16 to form the line bundles having the predetermined length.

As shown in Fig. 2, the feeding unit 4 continuously conveys the waste line bundles, which are cut by the extrusion cutting unit 3 to form the line bundles having the predetermined length, to the sintering furnace 5. The feeding unit 4 may be typical feeding means, such as a belt conveyor and a roller conveyor.

As shown in Figs. 3 and 4, the sintering furnace 5 is designed to promote thermal efficiency for sintering and hardening the soft sheaths of the waste electric line bundles with low heat. In order that the soft sheaths may be sintered with a small amount of fuel while using combustion heat generated by the process of sintering the soft sheaths of the waste electric line bundles, the sintering furnace 5 is designed in such a way that the soft sheaths of the line bundles easily come into contact with hot air passing through the center of the sintering furnace 5, as shown with a dotted line in the Fig. 3

The sintering furnace 5 is rotated at a low speed, and provided on its inner circumferential surface with a plurality of grooves 17 having a rectangular cross- section such that the waste electric line bundles received in the grooves 17 are rotated upwards by the rotation of the sintering furnace 5 until reaching the upper portion of the sintering furnace 5, as shown in Fig. 4. At this time, the line bundles are perpendicularly dropped. By repeating such an action, the soft sheaths of the waste electric line bundles are sintered and hardened by hot air passing through the center of the sintering furnace 5.

That is, the sintering furnace 5 allows the soft sheaths of the waste line bundles to be repeatedly sintered while rotating at low heat, thus saving the cost of fuel as well as increasing thermal efficiency in comparison with the conventional rotary kiln needing high heat.

The roll breaker 6 crushes the hardened sheaths of the sintered line bundles to divide the line bundles into copper wires and the sheaths. As shown in Fig. 5, the roll breaker 6 includes a first crush roller set 18 primarily compressing and crushing the hardened sheaths of the sintered line bundles. At least one second crush roller set 19 is installed below the first crush roller set 18 and secondarily crushes the primarily crushed sheaths of the line bundles. An automatic adjusting unit 20 is installed at a position adjacent to the first and second crush roller sets 18 and 19, and adjusts the interval of rollers of each of the first and second crush roller sets 18 and 19, according to the sizes of the waste electric line bundles fed into the roll breaker 6, such that both the first and second crush roller sets 18 and 19 maintain appropriate crushing pressures. An air blower 21 blows air to the line bundles crushed by the first and second crush roller sets 18 and 19 to divide the line bundles into the copper wires and the sheaths.

In order that the first and second crush roller sets 18 and 19 may always maintain appropriate crushing pressure, the intervals of the first and second roller sets 18 and 19 are automatically adjusted by the adjusting unit 20, according to the size of the waste electric line bundles fed into the roll breaker 6.

The adjusting unit 20 may be a shock absorber using a fluid pressure or a spring. The air blower 21 may have the same construction as a fan blower for allowing sludge of the hardened sheaths crushed by the roll breaker 6 to be blown off.

When the copper wires are extracted from the waste line bundles by crushing the hardened sheaths of the line bundles in the roll breaker 6, the chain scraper 7 secondarily removes remnant sheaths from the copper wires. That is, since the sintered sheaths still remain in the copper wires passing through the roll breaker 6, the chain scraper 7 serves to completely remove such remnant sheaths from the copper wires.

As shown in Figs. 6 and 7, the chain scraper 7 has a rotary drum 22 which is provided with a plurality of chains or paddles 23 therein. When the copper wires are fed from the roll breaker 6 to the chain scraper 7, the rotary drum 22 is rotated to remove the remnant sheaths from the copper wires by a plurality of chains or paddles 23 positioned in the rotary drum 22, thus completely removing the remnant sheaths from the copper wires.

Further, the rotary cleaner 8 is installed at a position adjacent to the chain scraper 7, and removes dust from the copper wires, after removing the remnant sheaths from the copper wires in the chain scraper 7. In the rotary cleaner 8, the copper wires are fed through a mesh screw feeder having a mesh of a predetermined shape and size, and a fan blower blows air into the copper wires to remove remnant dust from the copper wires.

The magnetic separator 9 is installed at a position adjacent to the rotary cleaner 8, and removes undesired metal components, such as iron, from the copper wires by magnetism of the magnetic separator 9 after removing remnant dust from the copper wires in the rotary cleaner 8, thus recycling copper wires of high purity.

In order to treat the hot waste gas produced while sintering the soft sheaths of the waste electric line bundles in the sintering furnace 5, the heat exchanger 10 lowers the temperature of hot waste gas before the hot waste gas flows into the antipollution facility. Furthermore, the desulphurizing/deodorizing unit 1 1 removes odor and noxious gas from the waste gas exhausted from the heat exchanger 10. Thereafter, dust remaining in the waste gas is collected by the dust collector 12 prior to the waste gas being discharged to the atmosphere. By completing said processes, all processes for recovering copper from the waste copper wires are finished and environmental contamination can be minimized.

As described above, the present invention provides a device for recovering copper from waste electric lines, which includes an electric line intake hopper for receiving waste electric lines, such as electric power lines, communication lines, and insulated wires into the device; an extrusion cutting unit receiving the waste electric lines from the electric line intake hopper and cutting the waste electric lines to form waste electric line bundles having a predetermined length; a feeding unit conveying the line bundles from the extrusion cutting unit; a sintering furnace sintering and hardening soft sheaths of the line bundles; a roll breaker crushing the sintered line bundles and firstly dividing the line bundles into copper wires and sheaths; a chain scraper secondarily removing remnant sheaths from the copper wires; a rotary cleaner removing dust from the copper wires fed from the chain scraper; a magnetic separator removing undesired metal components, such as iron, from the copper wires fed from the rotary cleaner; a heat exchanger lowering temperature of hot waste gas produced while sintering the soft sheaths of the waste electric line bundles in the sintering furnace; a desulphurizing/deodorizing unit removing odor and noxious gas from the waste gas exhausted from the heat exchanger; and a dust collector colleting dust remaining in the waste gas.

In the device of this invention, the processes of recovering copper from the waste electric lines are as follows. First, the waste electric lines are collected from cars, personal computers, household electric appliances, various automatic devices and others used in several industrial fields, home, offices, and etc., and then cut to form waste line bundles having a predetermined length. Next, the waste line bundles are fed to several processing chambers for a series of processes: sintering and hardening soft sheaths of waste line bundles, crushing the sintered line bundles and primarily dividing the line bundles into copper wires and sheaths, secondarily removing remnant sheaths from the copper wires, removing dust from the copper wires, and removing undesired metal components, such as iron, by magnetism. Through such processes, copper of high purity can be obtained.

Furthermore, the device recovering copper from waste electric lines also performs the following processes: lowering the temperature of hot waste gas produced while sintering the soft sheaths of the waste electric line bundles, removing odor and noxious gas from the waste gas, and collecting dust remaining in the waste gas before discharging the waste gas to the atmosphere. In this way, atmospheric contamination by the waste gas produced in the sintering process can be desirably prevented.

Industrial Applicability

As described above, the present invention provides a device for recovering copper from waste electric lines. As society develops toward an information society together with a high level of industrialization, people's living standard is also considerably improved, so there is a rapid increase in demand for cars, personal computers, various household appliances, automatic devices, and etc. Such a trend leads to an explosive increase in demand for insulated wires and communication lines. However, when the useful life span of the lines expire, waste lines must be appropriately treated. But, it is difficult to treat the waste lines, thus causing serious social problems, for example, waste of natural resources, environmental contamination, and etc. In order to solve the problems, the present invention provides a device for recovering copper from waste electric lines, which sinters the waste lines to divide the waste lines into sheaths and copper wires, thus recovering only copper, therefore protecting the natural environment as well as recycling copper.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.

Claims

1. A device for recovering copper from waste electric lines, comprising: an electric line intake hopper for receiving waste electric lines, such as electric power lines, communication lines, and insulated wires into the device; an extrusion cutting unit receiving the waste electric lines from said electric line intake hopper and cutting the waste electric lines to form waste electric line bundles having a predetermined length; a feeding unit conveying the line bundles from the extrusion cutting unit; a sintering furnace sintering and hardening soft sheaths of the line bundles; a roll breaker crushing the sintered line bundles and firstly dividing the line bundles into copper wires and sheaths; a chain scraper secondarily removing remnant sheaths from the copper wires; a rotary cleaner removing dust from the copper wires fed from the chain scraper; a magnetic separator removing undesired metal components from the copper wires fed from the rotary cleaner; a heat exchanger lowering temperature of hot waste gas produced while sintering the soft sheaths of the waste electric line bundles in said sintering furnace; a desulphurizing/deodorizing unit removing odor and noxious gas from the waste gas exhausted from said heat exchanger; and a dust collector colleting dust remaining in said waste gas.

2. The device according to claim 1 , wherein said extrusion cutting unit comprises: a feeding conveyor carrying the waste electric lines fed from the hopper; a compressing conveyor installed above said feeding conveyor and compressing the waste electric lines while moving along with the feeding conveyor; a stepping box having a mold and pushing compressed lines into a mold to give a desired form to the lines; and a cable cutting unit cutting the lines filled inside said stepping box to form the line bundles having the predetermined length.

3. The device according to claim 1, wherein said sintering furnace is provided on an inner circumferential surface thereof with a plurality of grooves having a rectangular cross-section such that the soft sheaths of the waste electric line bundles are sintered by hot air passing through a center of the sintering furnace while the waste electric line bundles received in the grooves are rotated along with the sintering furnace, thus sintering and hardening the soft sheaths of the waste electric line bundles with low heat.

4. The device according to claim 1, wherein said roll breaker comprises: a first crush roller set primarily compressing and crushing the hardened sheaths of said sintered line bundles; at least one second crush roller set installed below said first crush roller set and secondarily crushing the primarily crushed sheaths of the line bundles; an automatic adjusting unit installed at a position adjacent to the first and second crush roller sets, and adjusting an interval of rollers of each of the first and second crush roller sets, according to sizes of the waste electric line bundles fed into the roll breaker, such that both the first and second crush roller sets maintain appropriate crushing pressures; and an air blower blowing air to the line bundles crushed by said first and second crush roller sets to divide the line bundles into the copper wires and the sheaths.

5. The device according to claim 1, wherein said chain scraper comprises a rotary drum having a plurality of chains or paddles therein to remove remnant sheaths from the copper wires separated from the hardened sheaths in the roll breaker.