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

随着手机、电视、冰箱或汽车等“智能”设备在日常生活中变得越来越普遍，对电子电路板的需求也随之增加。目前，制造电路板的常用材料是由浸渍环氧树脂的编织玻璃纤维布组成的层压板。这种材料提供了适当的性能平衡-它是硬，强，电绝缘，价格合理，并具有所需的抵抗外部因素，如热，湿和火。然而，现有玻璃环氧树脂电路板层压板的一个重大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（它是一种所谓的“热固性”塑料）。此外，玻璃纤维与环氧树脂的分离是一个很大的问题。在最好的情况下，废弃电路板往往被粉碎和焚烧，以回收电路和组件中的高价值金属。然而，它们往往最终会被填埋。该提案提供了一种管理报废电路板的替代方法。这个项目不是用难以回收的玻璃环氧纤维生产电路板，而是基于一种被称为“Soluboard”的新型电路板材料技术。Soluboard由一种新型的天然纤维增强塑料组成。在使用寿命结束时，只需将其浸泡在热水中即可回收。这导致塑料溶解（类似于洗衣机和洗碗机洗涤剂胶囊中使用的塑料包装），这样增强的天然纤维可以很容易地分离出来进行再加工或堆肥，电子元件和电路可以完好无损地回收。到目前为止，使用Soluboard电路板的电子设备的工作概念已经开发，生产和测试成功。为了推进这项发明，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，并且需要大量生产。这是该项目的主要目的——证明大批量生产Soluboard的可行性，并证明所得到的电路板可以与现有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.