National
Recovery Technologies, Inc. (NRT) and wTe Corporation have
developed a platform of technologies aimed at applying advanced
optoelectronic sensors and computer analytical methods to the
high-speed sorting of metals. The viability of the US metals
industry is seriously threatened today by inexpensive metals and
alloys supplied by overseas sources, particularly Asian and eastern
European countries. To effectively compete in the United States,
our metals industries must create alternative low cost indigenous
sources of metal. Greater scrap usage presents just such an
opportunity.
As
one of the world’s largest consumers, the United States generates a
large supply of non-ferrous (aluminum, copper, zinc, etc) metals in
the form of scrap--more than 30 billion pounds annually. It is
difficult to use a large percentage of scrap to produce new high
grade alloys due to the scrap’s widely varying composition. If
scrap metals could be accurately sorted to close compositional
tolerances (perhaps even by alloy type), the proportion of scrap used
in making new metal could be increased. This would provide many
benefits, including reduced cost, less reliance on foreign
virgin feedstock, energy savings, and emission of fewer
pollutants. The U.S. scrap industry has done little to take
advantage of computer technology. Most metal scrap separation is
done today using antiquated, hand-and-eye sorting techniques. For
obvious reasons, such labor intensive methods leave the United States
at a competitive disadvantage from a worker safety and production
cost standpoint. wTe Corporation (working with a consortium of
other small business companies and universities) has developed and
patented an entirely new platform of optoelectronic technologies
capable of reliably and cost effectively sorting mixed nonferrous
metals on a large scale.
The
new Spectramet® technology “fingerprints” objects
(scrap metal) in milliseconds and then automatically sorts them at
rates approaching 100 objects per second. This new technique
represents a quantum leap in sorting methodology. By converting
current mixtures of scrap metal into high grade specification alloys,
more scrap can be recycled and re-used in the melting process, saving
time and money and diminishing environmental impacts. This will help
U.S. metals industries become more competitive and at the same time,
reduce U.S. reliance on scarce strategic materials that today must be
purchased abroad. Fully automated systems have been demonstrated
at pilot scale, operating at capacities of several tons per
day. Commercialization efforts are now underway for larger scale
systems, integrating the entire platform of technologies. The
technologies are not only applicable to metals, but can also be
applied to identifying and sorting other materials.
Collaborator:
National Recovery Technologies, Inc. (TN)
