Recycling & Re-Use Potentiale
Friction-induced process for user-specific and energy-efficient recycling of aluminium chips.
Supervisor:
- Supervisor: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Werner Homberg
- Supervisor: N.N.
- Practice partner: N.N.
- Industry partners: N.N.
Motivation
Worldwide, the reduction of emissions and the full utilisation of available resources are becoming more and more important. This development can also be observed in the production of aluminium. The primary production of aluminium is a very (energy) intensive process due to the controversial bauxite mining and electrolysis. One way to reduce energy consumption is to melt down used aluminium to produce secondary aluminium. In addition to this, other application-related processes for recycling aluminium as well as other (light) metals must be developed. These processes should be flexible and as easy as possible to integrate into existing production structures. The process explained in the following provides for direct extrusion to a defined geometry. This is the major advantage of this process variant compared to the conventional recycling process. In the process researched here, only one low-energy process step is necessary to produce the final geometry. The conventional recycling process for the production of semi-finished products, on the other hand, consists of several production steps.
Objective and approach
In this project, the friction-induced "Conform" process, which has been used to date for the forming of semi-finished products, is to be used for the recycling of scrap from metal-cutting production. The chips produced in many production processes are to be recycled with as little energy as possible following cleaning/preparation with the help of the process. The friction-induced process variant investigated here provides for direct generation of the end product in the form of various semi-finished products. The extrusion process focuses on the controlled and continuous adjustment of the mechanical properties of the profile. A comparison with the properties of conventionally produced aluminium profiles is to be aimed for.
