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US 11,761,056 B2Granted
Systems and methods for recycling waste metal pieces using shot blasting and shot removal
AssigneeHouse of Metals Company Limited
InventorDaniel Bitton
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and system of recycling aluminum alloy wheels, the method and system comprising (a) providing a feed of aluminum alloy wheels of a particular alloy; (b) fragmenting the aluminum alloy wheels into a plurality of fragments (c) shot blasting the plurality of fragments to clean non-aluminum contaminants off the plurality of fragments; (d) separating the plurality of fragments from the plurality of shot by moving a mixture of the plurality of fragments and the plurality of shot adjacent a dividing surface; and (e) providing the remaining plurality of fragments for use in manufacturing at least one component made from aluminum alloy.
Claims19
A method of recycling aluminum alloy wheels, the method comprising:
- providing a feed of aluminum alloy wheels of a particular alloy;
- fragmenting the aluminum alloy wheels into a plurality of fragments such that more than 95% of a mass of the quantity of the aluminum alloy wheels is fragmented such that each fragment in the 95% of the mass of the quantity of the aluminum alloy wheels has a maximum length of more than ½ L, where the maximum length is a greatest distance between any two points on a fragment and L is a distance of at least 1 inch;
- providing a plurality of shot wherein each shot in the plurality of shot has a maximum length of ⅛ L or less;
- shot blasting the plurality of fragments with the plurality of shot to clean non-aluminum contaminants off the plurality of fragments;
- providing a dividing surface for separating the plurality of fragments from the plurality of shot, the dividing surface having a plurality of holes wherein each hole in the plurality of holes is large enough for objects having a maximum length of ⅜ L or less to pass through and small enough to block objects having a maximum length of ⅝ L or more from passing through;
- after shot blasting the plurality of fragments with the plurality of shot, separating the plurality of fragments from the plurality of shot by moving a mixture of the plurality of fragments and the plurality of shot adjacent the dividing surface such that at least a portion of the plurality of shot passes through the dividing surface via the plurality of holes, separating at least the portion of the plurality of shot from a remaining plurality of fragments not passing through the dividing surface via the plurality of holes;
- and
- providing the remaining plurality of fragments for use in manufacturing at least one component made from aluminum alloy.
5 more elements
A system for recycling aluminum alloy wheels, the system comprising:
- a conveyor for providing a feed of aluminum alloy wheels of a particular alloy;
- a fragmenting unit for receiving the feed of aluminum alloy wheels from the conveyor and for fragmenting the aluminum alloy wheels into a plurality of fragments such that more than 95% of a mass of the quantity of the aluminum alloy wheels is fragmented into fragments having a maximum length of more than ½ L, where the maximum length is a greatest distance between any two points on a fragment and L is a distance of at least 1 inch;
- a blast chamber for receiving the plurality of fragments from the fragmenting apparatus and for subjecting the plurality of fragments to shot blasting to provide a plurality of shot blasted pieces, wherein the blast chamber comprises a plurality of shot to provide the shot blasting, and each shot in the plurality of shot has a maximum length of ⅛ L or less;
- and,
- a separator for receiving the plurality of fragments and the plurality of shot blasted pieces, the separator comprising a dividing surface for separating the plurality of fragments from the plurality of shot, the dividing surface having a plurality of holes wherein each hole in the plurality of holes is large enough for objects having a maximum length of ⅜ L or less to pass through and small enough to block objects having a maximum length of ⅝ L or more from passing through;
- wherein, in operation, a mixture of the plurality of fragments and the plurality of shot is moved adjacent the dividing surface such that at least a portion of the plurality of shot passes through the dividing surface via the plurality of holes, separating at least the portion of the plurality of shot from a remaining plurality of fragments not passing through the dividing surface via the plurality of holes;
- the remaining plurality of fragments being usable to manufacture at least one component made from aluminum alloy.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.