Efficient Manufacturing of Recyclable Composite Laminates for Electrical Goods (ReCollect)

随着手机、电视、冰箱、汽车等“智能”设备在日常生活中的普及，对电子线路板的需求也越来越大。目前，制造线路板的常用材料是由浸渍了环氧树脂的编织玻璃布构成的层压材料。这种材料提供了适当的性能平衡-它是刚性，坚固，电绝缘，经济实惠，并具有所需的抵抗外部因素，如热，湿度和火灾。然而，现有的玻璃-环氧树脂电路板层压板的一个显著缺点是，它们在使用寿命结束时很难回收。这是因为环氧树脂不能熔化（它是所谓的“热固性”塑料）。此外，玻璃纤维与环氧树脂的分离是非常成问题的。在最好的情况下，废电路板往往被切碎和焚烧，以回收电路和组件中的高价值金属。然而，这些废弃电路板通常会被填埋，这一提议提供了一种管理报废电路板的替代方法。该项目不是用难以回收的玻璃-环氧树脂生产电路板，而是基于一种称为“Soluboard”的新电路板材料技术。Soluboard由一种新型天然纤维增强塑料组成。在使用寿命结束时，Soluboard只需将其浸入热水中即可回收。这会使塑料溶解（类似于洗衣机和洗碗机洗涤剂胶囊中使用的塑料包装），因此可以很容易地分离出增强的天然纤维进行再加工或堆肥，并且可以完整地回收电子元件和电路。迄今为止，已成功开发、生产和测试了带有Soluboard电路板的电子设备的工作概念。为了推进本发明，现在需要的是一种制造Soluboard的方法，该方法具有电子产品生产商所要求的性能和质量，并且以他们所要求的高数量。这是该项目的主要目的-证明大批量生产Soluboard的可行性，并表明由此产生的电路板可以与现有的玻璃环氧树脂层压板的性能相匹配。

As "smart" devices, be they phones, televisions, fridges or cars, become ever more prevalent in everyday life, so the requirement for electronic circuit boards increases.Currently, a common material for manufacturing circuit boards is a laminate consisting of a woven fibreglass cloth impregnated with an epoxy resin. This material provides the right balance of properties - it is stiff, strong, electrically insulating, affordable and has the required resistance to external factors such as heat, humidity and fire.However, a significant drawback of existing glass-epoxy circuit board laminates is that they are very difficult to recycle at end-of-life. This is because the epoxy resin cannot be melted (it is a so-called "thermosetting" plastic). Furthermore, the separation of the glass fibres from the epoxy resin is highly problematic. At best, waste circuit boards tend to be shredded and incinerated to recover the high-value metals in the circuitry and components. However, often they will simply end up in landfill.This proposal offers an alternative way of managing end-of-life circuit boards. Rather than producing boards from difficult-to-recycle fibreglass-epoxy, this project is based upon a new circuit board material technology known as "Soluboard". Soluboard consists of a novel natural fibre reinforced plastic. At end-of-life, Soluboard can be recycled simply by immersing it in hot water. This causes the plastic to dissolve (in a similar way to the plastic wrapping used in detergent capsules for washing machines and dishwashers) so that the reinforcing natural fibres can be separated easily for reprocessing or composting, and the electronic components and circuitry can be recovered intact.To date, working concepts of electronic devices with Soluboard circuit boards have been developed, produced and tested successfully. In order to progress the invention, what is now needed is a method of manufacturing Soluboard with the performance and quality demanded by producers of electronic goods, and in the high quantities they require. This is the primary aim of this project - to demonstrate the feasibility of producing Soluboard in high volumes and to show that the resulting circuit boards can match the performance of the incumbent glass-epoxy laminates.