Process and apparatus for recovering metal and plastic from insulated wire
AssigneeOccidental Research Corporation
InventorBooker W. Morey
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Method and apparatus for recovering metal and plastic from plastic insulated wire. Plastic insulated wire is first chopped or otherwise comminuted to reduce the wire size. The bare metal, typically copper or aluminum, is separated from the insulation and insulated wire by aspiration or electrostatic separation. The plastic insulation is then separated from the insulated wire and any remaining bare metal by eddy current separation, typically in a linear induction motor, resulting in three fractions, the bare metal, the pure plastic, and the remaining plastic insulated wire pieces. The latter may be further processed, as by impact milling to separate the plastic from the metal, and then recycled to separate bare metal, plastic insulation, and insulated wire.
Claims15
In a process for separating plastic insulated, non-ferrous, electrical conducting wire into three fractions for recovering metal and plastic, the steps of:
- comminuting the plastic insulated, non-ferrous, electrical conducting wire to reduce the wire to small pieces;
- separating the small pieces into a first bare metal fraction and a second fraction containing plastic and plastic covered metal;
- and
- separating the plastic of said second fraction by eddy current separation from the plastic covered metal, providing a bare metal fraction, a plastic fraction, and a plastic covered metal fraction.
An apparatus for separating plastic insulated, non-ferrous, electrical conducting wire into three fractions for recovering metal and plastic from plastic insulated wire, the combination of:
- comminution means for reducing said wire to small pieces;
- first separation means for separating bare metal from plastic and plastic covered metal;
- means for delivering said small pieces to said first separation means;
- second separation means of the eddy current type for separating plastic from plastic covered metal;
- and
- means for delivering said plastic and plastic covered metal from said first separation means to said second separation means,
- with said first separation means providing a bare metal fraction and with said second separation means providing a plastic fraction and a plastic covered metal fraction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.