System and method for the recycling of rare earth magnets

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10643776-B2
Application number	US-201615341057-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 2, 2016
Priority date	Nov 6, 2015
Publication date	May 5, 2020
Grant date	May 5, 2020

Abstract

A system and a method for separating and recycling magnets made from rare earth elements from an article of manufacture used an alignment device to property position the rare earth magnet for processing. Once proper alignment is made, a separating device removes the magnet and a portion of the article. A heating device demagnetizes the magnets and vibration causes the magnets to separate from the portion of the article. Electromagnets remove the portion of the article and the rare earth magnets pass through for reclamation.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system for recycling rare earth materials from articles of manufacture having a rare earth magnet, the system comprising:
a feed system including a conveyor to transport the articles of manufacture, the articles of manufacture including at least two dissimilar articles in a mixed product stream;
an alignment system including a machine vision system to identify the location of the rare earth magnets within each of the articles of manufacture and including an alignment device to reposition the articles of manufacture on the conveyor such that the rare earth magnets receive a predetermined orientation;
a separating device for separating the rare earth magnets from the articles of manufacture;
a heating device for heating and demagnetizing the rare earth magnets that are separated from the articles of manufacture; and
an electromagnet for separating residual components of the articles of manufacture from the demagnetized rare earth magnets.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the machine vision system is adapted to determine the identity of each of the articles of manufacture.

3. The system of claim 2 further including a database which correlates the identity of each of the articles of manufacture with the location of the rare earth magnets within the articles of manufacture.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the machine vision system includes an X-Ray system or a magnetic imaging system to determine the location of the rare earth magnets within the articles of manufacture.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the separating device is a punch, a waterjet, or a laser.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the heating device is an induction heating coil.

7. The system of claim 6 further comprising an electromagnetic acoustical transducer for inducing vibration in the induction field of the induction heating coil.

Assignees

• Ut Battelle Llc

Inventors

• Mcintyre Timothy J

Classifications

• H01F13/006 Primary

  Methods and devices for demagnetising of magnetic bodies, e.g. workpieces, sheet material (for erasing of information on magnetic record carriers G11B5/00) · CPC title

• B03C1/0335

  using coils · CPC title

• B03C1/26

  with free falling material (B03C1/035 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B23K26/40

  taking account of the properties of the material involved · CPC title

• H05B2206/023

  using the curie point of the material in which heating current is being generated to control the heating temperature · CPC title