Real-time monitoring system for improving corona electrostatic separation in the process of recovering waste printed circuit boards.
Although corona electrostatic separation is successfully used in recycling waste printed circuit boards in industrial applications, there are problems that cannot be resolved completely, such as nonmetal particle aggregation and spark discharge. Both of these problems damage the process of separation and are not easy to identify during the process of separation in industrial applications. This paper provides a systematic study on a real-time monitoring system. Weight monitoring systems were established to continuously monitor the separation process. A Virtual Instrumentation program written by LabVIEW was utilized to sample and analyse the mass increment of the middling product. It includes four modules: historical data storage, steady-state analysis, data computing and alarm. Three kinds of operating conditions were used to verify the applicability of the monitoring system. It was found that the system achieved the goal of monitoring during the separation process and realized the function of real-time analysis of the received data. The system also gave comprehensible feedback on the accidents of material blockages in the feed inlet and high-voltage spark discharge. With the warning function of the alarm system, the whole monitoring system could save the human cost and help the new technology to be more easily applied in industry.
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, People's Republic of China weee@sjtu.edu.cn.
Jia
J
Li
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, People's Republic of China.
Quan
Q
Zhou
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, People's Republic of China.
Zhenming
Z
Xu
D003201:Computers; D007220:Industrial Waste / Q000032:analysis*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D059027:Recycling / Q000379:methods*; D055672:Static Electricity
D007220:Industrial Waste
LabVIEW; Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE); Waste printed circuit board; corona electrostatic separation; real time