# Electrostatic separator



## knofan (Jun 26, 2017)

Hi everyone

Im new to this forum but i have been looking around and i must say there are a lot of interesting posts and good information here. 

I have been thinking about starting a real business scraping electronics. More specificaly PCBs. I searched the forums for information about electrostatic separation and did not find much. 

So far i have been in contact with one company that specializes in this kind of separation, http://www.ife-system.se. They told me that the best solution if using this method is to grind the material to a very fine grade. Less than one mm in size (less than 0.04 inches). 

Then the separation process will be the most accurate. 

It will separate into no-metalic and metalic particles. And refinment will take on from there. 

Do anyone have experience with this sort of machines and could provide some input or thoughts?

Thanks alot!


----------



## kurtak (Jun 28, 2017)

I believe you are talking about an eddy current separator 

:arrow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_current_separator

Material (after shredding) needs to FIRST go through a "magnetic" separator to remove the magnetic fraction - other wise it will cause problems when feed to the eddy current separator

You are talking about a VERY expensive operation to set up because of all the OTHER equipment needed to handle & process the material before it goes to the eddy current separator

You need to have a LOT of material coming in on a regular bases (like EVERY day) to pay for such an operation :!: 

So - you NEED to acquire & "establish" a regular & "constant" source(s) of LARGE volumes of material BEFORE making such an investment :!: 

Kurt


----------



## knofan (Jun 29, 2017)

Hi Kurt 

Thank you for your reply. 

Eddy current and electrostatic separation are not the same. https://en.wikipedia.or/wiki/Electrostatic_separator

It is somewhat expensive. From China you can buy a electrostatic separator for arund 10-$15 000. I think they are much more expensive here in Europe. 

The problem that i have is that the separator needs to have a very small particle size to be effective. And at the moment i have not been able to find a mill/grinder that handle that small particles. It might be impossible to find it. 

It is true that i need lots of materials and i have been looking to find suppliers. I have found i few so i think it will be okay. 

Right now i have problems with the method of grinding and also what to do with the resin, plastic and glas fibers that are left over as waste. Perhaps i can find a special application for the waste. But so far i have not found anything. Any ideas on this?


/Håkan


----------



## Egyman873 (Oct 10, 2017)

There's many options to chose your mill 
I recommended retsch SM 2000 cutting mill , Or you can search google for hammer mills

I was searching for the same process mainly you need the cutting mill following by magnetic separator and electrostatic separator at the end 

This process usually used by commercial facilities and it's very expensive so I am trying to find small capacity machines.

Good luck for you


----------



## kjavanb123 (Oct 10, 2017)

You can visit Mt Baker Mining and Metals website they have milling equipments that can grind whole e-waste or PCBs into fine particles in one pass.

Regards
Kj


----------



## Egyman873 (Oct 11, 2017)

Can we use milling machine and electrostatic separator to recovery metals in electronic components (Ic chips, MLCC, SLots, Connectors, ...._ effectively 

Just notices most of companies using the same process for recycling clean PCB only to recover copper


----------

