Scrap recycling plants for printed circuit boards (PCB) - Waste and Recycling
Complex separation processes are playing an important role in the field of printed circuit board treatment as well. When recycling printed circuit boards valuable precious metal concentrates can be obtained, which are immediately available for subsequent melting after this treatment process developed by URT. In this area of recycling, sampling plays an important role. It serves the disposer as control of his input and output. Since many years URT is successfully focusing on treatment concepts for printed circuit boards recycling. There exists a basic PCB recovery concept which starts with a one-step shredding of the complete end-of-life printed circuit boards. This is done with a low rotating four-shaft rotary shear producing a granule having a size of 20 mm. Ferrous metals and aluminium can be now separated with this granule size. In this case already 30 % of metals will be obtained which can be sold immediately.Now precious metals (copper, gold, silver and palladium) are concentrated in the remaining PCB residue in comparison with the original material mass started. Usually this material fraction is sold to copper smelters.
By a further separation shredding and subsequent density separation steps metal concentrates can be furthermore produced, which can be directly melted. By subsequent electrolysis and hydrometallurgical processes copper and precious metals are recovered.
A further technical challenge regarding printed circuit board processing has been already realized by URT. So pyrolysis plants have been designed with which metal concentrates are produced in a pyrolysis furnace, under exclusion of air. All organic substances are directed in a gaseous form into a post combustion chamber for being burned.
At all mentioned methods, sampling of circuit boards is of prime importance. For this purpose, URT has developed a process by which the PCB fractions are separated by sample divider.
Statistically correct samples are resulting, even from large lot batches, which are then used for material analysis.