REC «Mekhanobr-Tekhnika» (St. Petersburg, Russia):

Dmitriev S. V., Chief Specialist, dmitriev_sv@npk_mt.spb.ru
Stepanyan A. S., First Deputy General Director, stepanyan_as@npk-mt.spb.ru

At the present time, only a certain part of electronics scrap characterized by an appreciable value owing to precious metals content, becomes subject to salvaging. It accounts for only 15 % of the total electronics scrap volume. The remaining 85 % is thrown on the scrap-heap. Taking into consideration the increasing negative impact of electronics scrap upon environment, there is a pressing need for development and introduction of salvaging methods that would render economically sound recycling of time-expired electronics with low content of precious metals. In spite of substantial number of research, performed in recent years, and commercial availability of offers with respect to technologies and equipment for recycling of electronics scrap, they fail to take into account the changes made in modern electronics, and, consequently, changes in material composition of electronic scrap, and more specifically, decreasing content of valuable elements. Alongside this, electronics miniaturization caused a limitation in application of physical-mechanical methods that constitute a basis of the existing technologies for electronics scrap recycling. At the present day, both in mineral processing, and electronics scrap recycling, electrical separation methods are widely applied, based on strong electric field effect upon charged solid particles. It is the authors’ opinion that methods and devices for electrical separation with combined action of different factors upon separated material attract the most interest. A new design of this type of separator has been developed at the Research and Engineering Corporation «Mekhanobr-Tekhnika».
The work was performed with the aid from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, the Government Agreement No. 14.585.21.0007. UIPNI RFMEFI 58516X0007.

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