Patent application number | Description | Published |
20110017644 | Method and System for Separating and Recovering Like-Type Materials from an Electronic Waste System - Recovering like-type materials from an electronic waste stream. The recovered materials can include, without limitation, ferrous and non-ferrous metals and plastics. Also, printed circuit board materials and precious metals can be recovered. Distinct technologies are combined to achieve the separation of the unique materials. | 01-27-2011 |
20110024531 | Method and System for Separating and Recovering Wire and Other Metal from Processed Recycled Materials - Processing waste materials to recover valuable metals, such as copper, from the materials. The disclosed systems and methods employ processes that further refine the waste materials to concentrate the metallic material after the waste materials are initially processed. Processes include employing air separation and screening. Processes also include employing a dynamic sensor and a vacuum pressure separator to separate metals from other materials. | 02-03-2011 |
20110067569 | Apparatus and Method for Separating Materials Using Air - Separating a mixture comprising at least two solid materials comprises transporting the mixture into a plenum, introducing air into the plenum, removing a heavier fraction of the solid materials from the plenum, removing air having a lighter fraction of the solid materials entrained therein from the plenum, removing the lighter fraction of the solid materials from the air that is removed from the plenum, filtering the remaining air, and re-circulating the air back to the plenum. Valves at the locations where material is introduced to and removed from the system can prevent air flow therethrough while allowing the materials to pass. The air can be introduced into the plenum at an angle with respect to the pathway in which the heavier fraction of the materials falls through the plenum, thereby avoiding damage to a screen that diffuses the air being introduced into the plenum. | 03-24-2011 |
20110147501 | Method and System for Separating and Recovering Wire and Other Metal from Processed Recycled Materials - Processing waste materials to recover valuable metals, such as copper, from the materials. The disclosed systems and methods employ processes that further refine the waste materials to concentrate the metallic material after the waste materials are initially processed. Processes include employing air separation and screening. Processes also include employing a dynamic sensor and a vacuum pressure separator to separate metals from other materials. A central processing facility may process metal concentrate from multiple concentration facilities. | 06-23-2011 |
20120199676 | Method for Separating and Recovering Concentrated Copper and Other Metal from Processed Recycled Materials - Processing waste materials to recover valuable metals, such as copper, from the materials. The disclosed methods employ processes that further refine the waste materials to concentrate the metallic material after the waste materials are initially processed. Processes include employing mechanical separation, air separation, sizing, and density separation. | 08-09-2012 |
20120260772 | Method and System for Processing an Iron Ore Tailings Byproduct - Methods and systems for processing an iron ore tailings byproduct are described. In one embodiment, a method for processing an iron ore tailings byproduct includes sizing particles within a slurry of the iron ore tailings byproduct to separate particles from the slurry having a dimension less than a predetermined size. After sizing, the method may further include centrifugating the particles less than the predetermined size into centrifugated concentrate and tails portions. The centrifugated concentrate portion may be separated into separated concentrate and tails portions. Finally, in certain embodiments, the separated concentrate portion may be de-watered to a remaining composition of matter comprising iron in greater proportion than in the iron ore tailings byproduct. Generally, using the systems and methods described herein, iron that would have otherwise been un-recovered is extracted from the iron ore tailings byproduct. | 10-18-2012 |
20130008832 | Method and System For Separating and Recovering Wire and Other Metal from Processed Recycled Materials - Processing waste materials to recover valuable metals, such as copper, from the materials. The disclosed systems and methods employ processes that further refine the waste materials to concentrate the metallic material after the waste materials are initially processed. Processes include employing air separation and screening. Processes also include employing a dynamic sensor and a vacuum pressure separator to separate metals from other materials. | 01-10-2013 |
20140077008 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IRON ORE BYPRODUCT PROCESSING - Processing byproduct material from a direct reduction process of iron ore to reclaim iron and other materials from the byproduct. The systems and methods employ gravity separation tables to separate the iron from other byproduct material constituents. The byproduct material constituents may be size reduced, processed to remove dust, and sized prior to processing by the gravity separation. | 03-20-2014 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20100005926 | Method And System For Recovering Metal From Processed Recycled Materials - Recovering metallic materials, such as copper, from waste materials. The A dynamic sensor measures the rate of change of current generated by metallic materials in the waste materials. Preprocessing and post processing of the waste materials may be completed to further concentrate the amount the metallic materials recovered from the waste. | 01-14-2010 |
20100051514 | Materials Separation Module - An automated system for sorting dissimilar materials, and in particular for sorting plastics from other materials and for sorting different types of plastics from one another comprises, depending upon the embodiment, combinations of a sizing mechanism, a friction separation, an air separator, a magnetic separator, a dielectric sensor sortation bed, shaker screening, a ballistic separator, an inductive sensor sortation system and a float/sink tank. The dielectric sensor sortation system may be either analog or digital, depending upon the particular implementation. One or more float/sink tanks can be used, depending upon the embodiment, each with a media of a different specific gravity. The media may be water, or water plus a compound such as calcium chloride. In addition, multiples of the same general type of module can be used for particular configurations. A heavy media system or a sand float process can be used either alternatively or additionally. | 03-04-2010 |
20100126913 | Wire Recovery System - An automated system for sorting dissimilar materials, and in particular for sorting plastics from other materials and for sorting different types of plastics from one another comprises, depending upon the embodiment, combinations of a sizing mechanism, a friction separation, an air separator, a magnetic separator, a dielectric sensor sortation bed, shaker screening, a ballistic separator, an inductive sensor sortation system and a float/sink tank. The dielectric sensor sortation system may be either analog or digital, depending upon the particular implementation. One or more float/sink tanks can be used, depending upon the embodiment, each with a media of a different specific gravity. The media may be water, or water plus a compound such as calcium chloride. In addition, multiples of the same general type of module can be used for particular configurations. A heavy media system or a sand float process can be used either alternatively or additionally. | 05-27-2010 |
20100168907 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SORTING CONTAMINATED GLASS - A method, apparatus and system for sorting contaminated glass from a stream of glass particles used light of a wavelength suited to inducing fluorescence in the contaminated glass pieces. Automatic cleaning mechanisms are included in some embodiments to facilitate removal of coatings which would prevent the contaminated particles from fluorescing. The identified particles are then automatically separated from the remaining particles. | 07-01-2010 |
20110049021 | Method and System for Recovering Metal from Processed Recycled Materials - Recovering metallic materials, such as copper, from waste materials. The dynamic sensor measures the rate of change of current generated by metallic materials in the waste materials. Preprocessing and post processing of the waste materials may be completed to further concentrate the amount the metallic materials recovered from the waste. | 03-03-2011 |
20140299516 | PROCESSING A WASTE STREAM BY SEPARATING AND RECOVERING WIRE AND OTHER METAL FROM PROCESSED RECYCLED MATERIALS - Processing waste materials to recover valuable metals, such as copper, from the materials. Waste materials are further refined to concentrate the metallic material after the waste materials are initially processed. Processes include employing air separation and screening. Processes also include employing a dynamic sensor and a vacuum pressure separator to separate metals from other materials. A central processing facility may process metal concentrate from multiple concentration facilities. | 10-09-2014 |
20150048009 | System and Method For Iron Ore Reclaiming From Tailings Of Iron Ore Mining Operations - A method for processing low grade iron ores includes a step of receiving iron ore tailings. The method further includes separating the iron ore tailings into two or more groups based on sizes of the iron ore tailings. Each group includes a respective portion of the iron ore tailings. The method also includes processing the portion of the iron ore tailings in at least one group using a density separation process to generate iron ore concentrate. | 02-19-2015 |
20150083832 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR RECOVERING COPPER FROM AUTOMOBILE SHREDDER RESIDUE - Processing copper wire concentrate produced from processing ASR to generate a bare copper product. The disclosed systems and methods employ processes that remove constituents from the copper wire concentrate that can damage conventional chopping equipment. After removing the constituents that can damage conventional chopping equipment, the process employs a grinder to grind the remaining copper wire to liberate the bare copper metal from the insulation material. | 03-26-2015 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080257793 | System and method for sorting dissimilar materials - Sorting dissimilar materials, such as sorting plastics from wood, foam, or rubber. These systems and methods employ either dielectric heating or fluorescent dye absorption characteristics of materials to distinguish the materials. The systems and methods may employ differential dielectric heating and thermal imaging to sort wood, rubber, and foam, from plastic, metals, and other materials that do not undergo dielectric heating. Similarly, systems and methods may employ the greater liquid absorption properties of wood, rubber, and foam as compared to plastic. The dissimilar materials are subjected to fluorescent dye and carrier liquid, that is differentially absorbed by objects. Fluorescent imaging can be used to distinguish the materials. In either case, a computer-controlled system can be used to sort material types based on an evaluation of the thermal or fluorescent image. | 10-23-2008 |
20080257794 | Method and system for sorting and processing recycled materials - Processing recycled materials to recover plastics, copper wire, and other non-ferrous metals. Aspects of the invention employ density separation to separate plastic-bearing materials from copper-bearing materials. Plastic-bearing materials are further separated to separate light plastics from heavy plastics. Plastics are concentrated, extruded, and palletized. Copper and other valuable metals are recovered from copper-bearing materials using a water separation table. | 10-23-2008 |
20090250384 | System and method for sorting dissimilar materials using a dynamic sensor - Processing metallic materials, such as copper, from waste materials. The systems and methods employ a dynamic sensor, which measures the rate of change of current generated by metallic objects that pass by the sensor to identify metallic objects in a waste stream. The dynamic sensor may be coupled to a computer system that controls a material diverter unit, which diverts the detected metallic objects for collection and possible further processing. The systems or methods may employ stages of sensors for sequential recovery of materials. | 10-08-2009 |
20100224537 | Method and Apparatus for Sorting Metal - A system for sorting metals from a batch of mixed material scrap includes an array of inductive proximity detectors, a processing computer and a sorting mechanism. The inductive proximity detectors identify the location of the metal pieces and the processing computer instructs the sorting mechanism to place the metal and non-metallic pieces into separate containers. | 09-09-2010 |