Recycling old cables and wires allows non-functional cables to have a broader application value. It significantly aids in the production of household appliances like refrigerators and fans, promoting the manufacturing of many components and electrical products. Moreover, in the process of car manufacturing, recycled cables can also play a more powerful role and offer advantages. Thus, the use of various materials has enhanced the convenience of daily life.
Waste Cable Utilization Methods
1. Hand-peeling Method: This method involves manual skinning, which is inefficient, costly, and provides poor working conditions for the workers.
2. Incineration Method: This is a traditional method that involves burning the plastic sheath of waste cables to recover the copper, but it produces extremely severe smoke pollution. Additionally, during the incineration process, the surface of the copper wire becomes heavily oxidized, reducing the metal recovery rate. This method has been strictly prohibited by countries worldwide.
3. Mechanical Peeling Method: Utilizes cable stripping machines for processing. This method still requires manual operation, is semi-mechanized, with high labor intensity and low efficiency, and is only suitable for processing thick-wire cables.
4. Chemical Method: The chemical method for treating waste cables was proposed in the 1990s and has been researched in some countries, with China also conducting studies during the "8th Five-Year Plan" period. A significant drawback of this method is that the resulting waste liquid cannot be processed, which has a considerable impact on the environment, thus it is rarely used.
5. Cryogenic Method: This method was also proposed in the 1990s, utilizing liquid nitrogen as a refrigerant to make the waste cables脆 at extremely low temperatures. After破碎ing and vibration, the plastic sheath is separated from the copper segments. China also initiated research on this method during the "Eight Five" period, but the drawback is that it is expensive and difficult to industrialize production.
Cables and wires, categorized by insulation material
1. Oil-impregnated paper insulated power cables are power cables insulated with oil-impregnated paper. They have a long history of use. They are safe and reliable, with a long service life and low cost. Their main drawback is that they are limited by altitude differences in installation. Since the development of non-dripping impregnated paper insulation, the issue of altitude differences has been resolved, allowing oil-impregnated paper insulated cables to continue to be widely used.
2. Plastic-insulated power cables are cables with insulation made of extruded plastics. Common plastics include polyethylene and cross-linked polyethylene. Plastic cables have a simple structure, are easy to manufacture and process, lightweight, and easy to install, without being restricted by installation drop. Therefore, they are widely used for medium and low voltage cables, and there is a trend towards replacing adhesive impregnated oil-paper cables. However, their major drawback is the occurrence of branching breakdown, which limits their use at higher voltages.
3. The rubber insulated power cable insulation is made of rubber and various additives, which are fully compounded and extruded around the conductor core, then vulcanized by heating. It is soft, elastic, and suitable for applications with frequent movement and small bending radii.
Commonly used insulating materials include natural rubber butyl rubber blends, ethylene propylene rubber, butyl rubber, etc.
What are the methods for recycling and reusing waste cables?
Section 1: Chemical Method
This method involves dissolving the insulation of废旧电缆 to separate the copper wire from the insulation. The advantage is that it yields excellent copper wire, but the drawback is that the treatment of the solution is quite challenging, and the cost of the solvent is high.
II. Frozen Method
This method uses liquid nitrogen as the refrigerant to make the waste cables brittle at extremely low temperatures, and then separates the plastic sheath from the copper wire segments through crushing and shock. However, the drawback of this method is that it is costly and difficult to industrialize production.
