Apparatus and method for assigning a material value score to a waste printed circuit board or a portion thereof and system for sorting waste printed circuit boards

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12030087-B2
Application number	US-202218045423-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 10, 2022
Priority date	Oct 11, 2021
Publication date	Jul 9, 2024
Grant date	Jul 9, 2024

Abstract

Apparatus and method for assigning a material value score to a waste printed circuit board or a portion thereof and system for sorting waste printed circuit boards.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An apparatus for assigning a material value score to a waste printed circuit board or a portion thereof, comprising
a microprocessor, a programmable computer system or a programmable logic device configured to determine the material value score and perform the determination on the basis of analyzing a dual energy or spectral x-ray image of the waste printed circuit board or the portion thereof using a machine learning module,
wherein the machine learning module is trained based on a set of data of annotated components, wherein the annotated components represent annotations of representative components of WPCBs.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , configured to detect in the dual energy or spectral x-ray image components of the waste printed circuit board.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , configured to deduce from the dual energy or spectral x-ray image a type, a weight and/or a size of the components.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , configured to determine for each component a component material value based on the type, weight and/or size associated with the respective component.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , configured to perform the determination of the material value score based on the component material values.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , configured to acquire the material value score by analysing simultaneously two opposite sides of the waste printed circuit board.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the material value score depends on a concentration of a predetermined material or concentrations of two or more predetermined materials to be recovered from the waste printed circuit board.

8. A system for sorting waste printed circuit boards, the system comprising an apparatus for assigning according to claim 1 and a sorting apparatus comprising a conveyor belt or a chute for distributing a plurality of waste printed circuit boards onto two or more classes of waste printed circuit boards according to the material value score assigned to each of the plurality of waste printed circuit boards by the apparatus for assigning.

9. A method for assigning a material value score to a waste printed circuit board or a portion thereof,
wherein the method comprises determining the material value score and performing the determination on the basis of analysing a dual energy or spectral x-ray image of the waste printed circuit board or the portion thereof using a machine learning module,
wherein the machine learning module is trained based on a set of data of annotated components, wherein the annotated components represent annotations of representative components of WPCBs.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the determination is performed by subjecting the dual energy or spectral x-ray image to a machine learning process.

11. A method for sorting waste printed circuit boards, the method comprising a method for assigning according to claim 9 and distributing a plurality of waste printed circuit boards onto two or more classes of waste printed circuit boards according to the material value score assigned to each of the plurality of waste printed circuit boards by the method for assigning.

Assignees

• Fraunhofer Ges Forschung
• Univ Darmstadt Tech
• Fraunhofer Geselleshaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forschung E V
• Technishe Univ Darmstadt

Inventors

• Firsching Markus
• Ennen Alexander
• Rüger Steffen
• Leisner Johannes
• Benner Wladislaw
• Vogelgesang Malte

Classifications

• H05K2203/178

  Demolishing, e.g. recycling, reverse engineering, destroying for security purposes; Using biodegradable materials · CPC title

• H05K3/22

  Secondary treatment of printed circuits {(H05K3/1283 takes precedence; embedding circuits in grooves by pressure H05K3/107)} · CPC title

• B07C2501/0054

  Sorting of waste or refuse · CPC title

• B07C5/3416 Primary

  according to radiation transmissivity, e.g. for light, x-rays, particle radiation (detecting hidden objects G01V) · CPC title

• G01N23/04 Primary

  and forming images of the material · CPC title