SBIR Phase II: A New Technology for Rapid Identification of Aluminum Metals

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目将开发一种从非磁性金属混合物中快速识别和分选铝及其合金的新技术，并将为工业制造过程提供这些有价值的材料的新的高质量来源。该项目计划完成对新技术的创新光电传感方法的开发，然后基于新技术设计、建造和测试一个接近商业规模的金属加工原型系统。原型系统将集成到位于商业合作伙伴金属回收设施现场的现有试点工厂测试设施中，并将在位于回收设施的汽车粉碎机加工线上的金属进料流上进行测试。主要目标是开发一种环境友好的计算机化干燥工艺，它可以位于当地，能够以低成本快速、清洁地从非磁性金属混合物中分选废铝，以取代用于混合金属的大型、昂贵和环境负担大的重介质工艺和冶炼工艺。这项技术的商业和更广泛的影响将是减少每年丢弃在垃圾填埋场的废铝合金的数量，因为回收这些材料在技术上和经济上都不可行。现有的分选方法使用目视检查和手工分选，或使用笨重且速度慢的手持/台式分析仪。重介质分离器和混合金属冶炼设施污染严重，建造和运营成本高昂。利用包括计算机分析在内的先进光电检测技术，这项拟议的技术将以前所未有的速度从混合有色金属中自动分选铝合金。如果该方法成功，对提高废钢利用率、增加废钢价值和减少环境污染的影响是巨大的。潜在的全球市场每年超过20亿美元。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop a new technology for rapid identification and sorting of aluminum and its alloys from a mixture of non-magnetic metals and will provide a new high quality source of these valuable materials for industrial manufacturing processes. This project plans to complete development of an innovative new optoelectronic sensing method integral to the new technology and then design, construct, and test a near commercial scale prototype metals processing system based upon the new technology. The prototype system will be integrated into an existing pilot plant test facility located on-site at the commercial partner's metals recycling facility and will be tested on metal feed streams derived from an automobile shredder processing line located at the recycling facility. A primary objective is to develop an environmentally friendly computerized dry process which can be situated locally and which can rapidly and cleanly sort aluminum scrap from mixtures of nonmagnetic metals at low cost to replace large, costly, and environmentally burdensome heavy media processes and smelting processes for mixed metals.The commercial and broader impacts of this technology will be to reduce the amount of scrap aluminum alloys that are discarded each year in landfills because recycling of these materials are neither technically nor economically practical. Existing methods of sortation use visual examination and hand sortation, or hand-held/bench-top analyzers that are cumbersome and slow in speed. Heavy media separators and smelting facilities for mixed metals are polluting and expensive to build and operate. Using advanced optoelectronic detection techniques, including computer analysis, the proposed technology will sort aluminum alloys from mixed nonferrous metals automatically at speeds never before attainable. If the approach is successful, the impact to increased scrap utilization, increased scrap value and reduced environmental pollution is enormous. The potential worldwide market exceeds $2 Billion annually.