Environmental friendly automatic line for recovering metal from waste printed circuit boards

The technology industrialization was the final goal of the research. A set of automatic line without negative impact to environment for recycling waste printed circuit boards (PCB) in industry-scale was investigated in this study. The independent technologies were integrated and many problems in the process of technology industrialization were solved. The whole technology contained four parts: multiple scarping, material screening, multiple-roll corona electrostatic separator, and dust precipitation. The output of this automatic line reached 600 kg/h and the recovery rate of copper reached 95%. After separation, the metal and nonmetal products were totally reused. Compared with other production lines (traditional fluid bed production line and processing from developed countries), the automatic line has lower energy consumption and better technology rationality. The cost of this line was in acceptable level for local processors.