Reclamation and rejuvenation of plastic and metal from metallized plastic
AssigneeFord Motor Company
InventorsRichard L. Gall, Richard T. Anklin, William B. Mende
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Metallized plastic such as chrome plated plastic is processed to separate metal from plastic and especially to recover reusable, essentially metal-free plastic. Metallized plastic is comminuted, as necessary, to suitably sized pieces which then are exposed to cryogenic temperature and impacted in a rotary mill to form a mixture of plastic and metal particles. Subsequently most of the metal particles are removed from the mixture by effecting particle size and magnetic separation steps. Oversized particles can be recycled for further processing. The recovered plastic is then extruded, under conditions which render it molten, through one or more screens.
Claims56
A method of reclamation of plating grade plastic from metallized plastic wherein the plastic has a tenaciously adherent coating of essentially nonferrous metal comprising a layer that is magnetically susceptable, which method comprises:
- (a) exposing pieces of said metallized plastic to a cryogenic temperature to embrittle same;
- (b) impacting the cooled pieces in a rotary impact mill to form a plastic and metal dispersion;
- (c) withdrawing from said dispersion an amount of said metal to provide a reusable plastic by effecting particle size separation, comprising segregating an intermediate product that will pass through a 12-20 mesh screen, and by exposing said intermediate product to a high intensity electromagnetic separation;
- and
- (d) filtering out residual impurities from the nonmagnetic fraction of step (c) by passing same through an extruder with continuous screen changer.
A method of reclamation of plating grade plastic from metallized plastic wherein the plastic has a tenaciously adherent coating of essentially nonferrous metal comprising a layer that is magnetically susceptable, which method comprises:
- (a) providing particulate metallized plastic having a weight average between largest and smallest particle dimension of between about 1-20 millimeters;
- (b) exposing said particulate metallized plastic to a cryogenic temperature to embrittle same;
- (c) impacting the cooled pieces in a rotary impact mill to form a plastic and metal dispersion at least about 80% by weight of which has a weight average average between smallest and largest particle dimensions that is at least about ten times smaller than that of the metallized plastic provided in step (a);
- and
- (d) withdrawing from said dispersion an amount of said metal sufficient to provide a reusable plating grade plastic by
- (i) removing particles larger than about 12 to 20 mesh;
- and
- (ii) then magnetically removing metal particles by subjecting product of step (d)(i) to a high intensity electromagnetic separation;
- and
- (e) filtering out residual impurities from the nonmagnetic fraction of step (d) by passing same through an extruder with continuous screen changer.
A method of reclamation of plating grade plastic from metallized plastic wherein the plastic has a tenaciously adherent coating of essentially nonferrous metal comprising a layer that is magnetically susceptable, which method comprises:
- (a) exposing pieces of said metallized plastic to a cryogenic temperature to embrittle same;
- (b) impacting the cooled pieces in a rotary impact mill to form a plastic and metal dispersion;
- (c) withdrawing from said dispersion an amount of said metal to provide a reusable plastic by effecting particle size separation, comprising segregating an intermediate product that will pass through a 12-20 mesh screen, and by exposing said intermediate product to magnetic separation;
- and
- (d) filtering out residual impurities from the nonmagnetic fraction of step (c) by passing same through an extruder with continuous screen changer.
A method of reclamation of plating grade plastic from metallized plastic wherein the plastic has a tenaciously adherent coating of essentially nonferrous metal comprising a layer that is magnetically susceptable, which method comprises:
- (a) providing particulate metallized plastic having a weight average average between largest and smallest particle dimension of between about 1-20 millimeters;
- (b) exposing said particulate metallized plastic to a cryogenic temperature to embrittle same;
- (c) impacting the cooled pieces in a rotary impact mill to form a plastic and metal dispersion at least about 80% by weight of which has a weight average average between smallest and largest particle dimensions that is at least about ten times smaller than that of the metallized plastic provided in step (a);
- and
- (d) withdrawing from said dispersion an amount of said metal sufficient to provide a reusable plating grade plastic by
- (i) removing particles larger than about 12 to 20 mesh;
- and
- (ii) then subjecting the product of step (d)(i) to magnetic separation to magnetically remove metal particles;
- and
- (e) filtering out residual impurities from the nonmagnetic fraction of step (d) by passing same through an extruder with continuous screen changer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.