초록 ▼

A high accuracy rapid system for sorting a plurality of waste products by polymer type. The invention involves the application of Raman spectroscopy and complex identification techniques to identify and sort post-consumer plastics for recycling. The invention reads information unique to the molecula

A high accuracy rapid system for sorting a plurality of waste products by polymer type. The invention involves the application of Raman spectroscopy and complex identification techniques to identify and sort post-consumer plastics for recycling. The invention reads information unique to the molecular structure of the materials to be sorted to identify their chemical compositions and uses rapid high volume sorting techniques to sort them into product streams at commercially viable throughput rates. The system employs a laser diode (20) for irradiating the material sample (10), a spectrograph (50) is used to determine the Raman spectrum of the material sample (10) and a microprocessor based controller (70) is employed to identify the polymer type of the material sample (10).

대표청구항 ▼

[ What is claimed is:] [1.]1. A method for rapid sorting of a plurality of materials by polymer type, comprising the steps of:a) conveying at least one of said plurality of materials;b) irradiating material conveyed with infrared light from a laser to induce distinguishable Raman emission;c) collect

[ What is claimed is:] [1.]1. A method for rapid sorting of a plurality of materials by polymer type, comprising the steps of:a) conveying at least one of said plurality of materials;b) irradiating material conveyed with infrared light from a laser to induce distinguishable Raman emission;c) collecting the light reflected from the said material;d) performing a spectroscopic analysis of the collected light to determine its Raman spectra;e) identifying the polymer type of said material by comparing said Raman spectra with a database of spectra of at least one known polymer type; andf) sorting at least one of said plurality of materials by identified polymer type.