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US 5,735,933 AGranted
Method for processing metallic waste
AssigneeTeruhisa Ogihara
InventorsYoshiaki Yokoyama, Teruhisa Ogihara
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AssigneeTeruhisa Ogihara
InventorsYoshiaki Yokoyama, Teruhisa Ogihara
Estimating the term…
A processing method by which metals may be recovered at a high purity from metal-containing waste materials. The method for processing metal-containing waste materials comprises crushing a metal-containing waste material to a particle size of 1-50 mesh, separating and recovering the metal-containing particles from the crushed portion, introducing the metal-containing particles into a vacuum heating furnace, pre-heating the furnace while under suction evacuation, and then raising the temperature of the furnace in stages while continuing the vacuum suctioning, recovering the metal and non-metal vapor produced at each temperature level using a condensing and adsorbing means, and recovering the liquated metals as melts. The method may be used to process waste batteries, copper-containing waste materials and the like in the same manner to recover high-purity metals.
A method for processing metal-containing waste material that also contains a non-metal component, characterized by crushing the metal-containing waste material, recovering metal-containing particles of a size in the range that will pass a 50 mesh screen and of increasing sizes to particles that will pass through a one mesh aperture screen from the crushed waste material by separation, introducing said recovered metal-containing particles into a vacuum-heating furnace, preheating the furnace while evacuating air from the furnace by suction, raising the temperature level of the furnace in stages to a first temperature to volatilize non-metal containing waste material, and then to at least one higher temperature to volatilize at least one metal component from the metal-containing waste material while continuing the vacuum suction to remove the volatilized non-metal and metal vapors, recovering the metal and non-metal vapors produced at said first and said at least one higher temperature level, passing the metal vapor through a condenser to convert the metal vapor to liquid metal and passing the non-metal vapor through an adsorber, and recovering the liquid metal.
A method for processing metal-containing waste material that includes a non-metal component to recover metal and non-metal components, characterized by introducing the metal-containing waste material into a sealed heating furnace, pre-heating the metal-containing waste material while evacuating the furnace by suction, and further heating while continuing the vacuum suction to raise the temperature level of the metal-containing waste material uniformly and in stages to a highest temperature level, at which highest temperature level a residue of the metal-containing waste material remains in the furnace, vacuum suctioning the vapor produced in the furnace at each temperature level, collecting and condensing the vapor of the metal components in a condenser and collecting the vapor of the non-metal components in an adsorber and, after completing the collection of the vaporized metal and non-metal components at the highest temperature level, feeding a cooling non-oxidizing gas to the furnace to cool the residue of the processed metal-containing waste material remaining in the furnace.
A method for processing metal-containing waste material to recover an object metal where said waste material can comprise carbon, said method, characterized by loading a metal-containing waste material onto a two-level jig, said jig comprising a melt catch pan section and a waste material holder section, and introducing said metal-containing waste material containing jig into a sealed heating furnace, pre-heating the metal-containing waste material while evacuating the furnace by suction, further heating while continuing the vacuum suction to raise the temperature level of said metal-containing waste material in stages to vaporize components of the metal-containing waste material, recovering the vapor produced at each temperature level by condensation and adsorption means, raising the temperature of the waste material at a final stage to above the melting point of the object metal to convert said object metal to molten metal in liquid drop form and, thereafter cooling to solidify said molten metal to form grains, removing any carbon components formed during the vaporization steps that adhere to the metal grains and recovering the metal grains.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.