초록
Improvements were made in the study for the design of the conventional Eddy Current Separator (ECS) used for separating small sized non-ferrous particles in the waste. These improvements include decreasing the air gap between the material and magnetic drum, making the drum position adjustable and placing the splitter closer to the drum. Thus, small particles were separated with high efficiency. The magnetic drum was removed from inside the ECS conveyor belt system as design change and was placed as a separate unit. Hence, the force generated on the test material increased by about 5.5 times while the air gap between the non-ferrous materials and drum decreased from 3 mm to 1 mm. The non-metal material in the waste is separated before the drum in the novel design. Whereas non-ferrous metal particles are separated by falling into the splitter as a result of the force generated as soon as the particles fall on the drum. Every material that passes through the drum can be recycled as a result of moving the splitter closer to the contact point of the drum. In addition, the drum can also be used for the efficient separation of large particles since its position can be adjusted according to the size of the waste material. The performance of the novel design ECS was verified via analytical approaches, finite element analysis (FEA) and experimental studies.