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DETAILED STUDYAs part of the sites environmental policy a study was conducted by The Humber Resource Efficiency Centre to ascertain whether we were managing our production of waste materials so as to have the minimum impact on the environment,and having produced the waste were we fully conversant with all the various methods of disposal. As dross formed a large part of our waste material it was decided to measure the impact of the Solder Recovery System on our waste levels. The recovery system was used on one of our three solder machines so that a comparison between solder usage with and without the EVS could easily be made. The trial was run over a period of one month and the figures collected were:
For the purpose of the results, machine 1 used the EVS. OPERATIONThe operating of the EVS is very simple and basically consists of adding hot or cold dross into a heated chamber,compressing the dross with a heated piston,collecting the usable solder squeezed out in an ingot tray and at the end of the cycle discharging the waste dross down a chute directly into a bin for disposal. Maintenance is minimal and easy and each unit has the ability via supplied software to monitor the machine operation and feedback any fault details. In our experience it was found that a better return was achieved when small amounts of dross were processed often rather than one or two large amounts. No major problems have been encountered with the machine and all of our minor problems have been addressed by the manufacturers and remedial improvements incorporated into their latest machines. Spares, technical back-up and support were also of a high standard. RESULTSResults were collected and collated on a daily basis but for the purposes of this report they have been totalled and averaged.
CONCLUSIONSAs can be seen from the above results a number of different conclusions can be reached. We were particularly interested in:
The average recovery rate was 59%,the highest achieved was 79% and the lowest 31%. This difference can be explained due to two main factors.
For the reduction in solder usage the following calculation was used: ______recycled
solder_______ x 100 = 35.5% These figures are not that far removed from the manufacturers claims and we are confident that higher returns can be achieved. The immediate effect can be seen from the table above,the solder machine with the SRS averages ·0143 kg/brd whereas with the other two machines the average is ·0265 kg/brd a difference of ·0122 kg/brd. This difference is purely the amount of usable solder being thrown away with the dross. In this instance it equates to putting 80% more solder / board. If we could recover all of the usable solder in our dross then the returns and hence savings would be higher than those achieved during the trial period and could even surpass the manufacturers claims. If we then also project using the figures achieved on machine 1 we would have recovered a further 378 kg from machines 2 and 3. This would have given us a total of 610 kg recovered solder in one month. If we then assume the same levels of production for the year we would expect to recover 7,320 kg of usable solder. Based on £4.54/kg this would give an annual saving of £33,232.
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