Promotion of Separation of Two-Phase Liquid Metals by Applying Mechanical Vibration

Abstract

Amount of waste from the electric motor is expected to increase by the spread of hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles. The pyro-recycle method, that is, separation and collection method of copper and rare earth elements by directly melting of a rotor of a motor, is expected as an efficient and low-cost method to recycle an electric motor. Cu and Fe are dissolved each other in the liquid phase, but they are separated by the addition of several percent carbons. In this study, we attempted to apply mechanical vibration to the melted magnet and copper to promote phase separation of Cu and Fe phase. Moreover, we investigated the distribution of rare earth elements in the copper and ferrous phase. By the results, the phase separation was promoted by applying feeble mechanical vibration such as 60 Hz, 0.75 G in a short time. Also, rare earth elements were concentrated in the copper phase.