New Technologies for the Environment: Continuous Belt Air to Vacuum to Air (AVA) Technology for Remanufacturing and Recycling in High Technology Industries

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The objective of this New Technologies for the Environment project is to adapt the air to vacuum (AVA) conveyor system to meet the needs of recycling and remanufacturing. It is expected that the recycling and remanufacturing of printed circuit boards (PCBs) and solar cells can be enhanced and made more cost effective if the AVA system can be introduced into the process. The manufacturing of PCBs is a very large industry ($20 billion globally) and there is a very large growth (20% annually) in the solar cell industry. High technology industries contribute significantly to the economy. Most of the products of the high technology industries are manufactured in systems where the air has been removed (vacuum environments). At the present time, recycling and remanufacturing is extremely limited in the high technology industries. Many of the products at the end of their life cycle end up in landfills and contribute to the pollution. Many of the same vacuum processes used for manufacturing can also be used for recycling and remanufacturing. These processes which offer great environmental benefits are not currently used due to the low throughput and high cost of vacuum processing. In order to reduce the cost of vacuum processing of thin films, a unique belt conveyor system has been developeda that transports discrete objects from air to vacuum for processing and then back to air. The environmental impact of this study will be to reduce the waste going into the landfills and the associated water pollution. The recycling and remanufacturing will also reduce the overall pollution from the manufacturing of these products.