Canon Launches New Plastic Sorting Equipment with Innovative Technology
TapTechNews June 20th news, Canon has launched a new type of plastic sorting equipment with innovative material recognition technology, which can realize the identification of black plastic waste.
It is known that black plastics commonly used in household electronic products or automotive interiors do not transmit or reflect visible light, so it is difficult to identify using conventional near-infrared spectroscopy. Some black plastics may be directly incinerated as ordinary household waste and not recycled effectively.
Raman spectroscopy is a detection method that uses laser irradiation on plastic sheets to obtain molecular information of substances, thereby realizing material detection. This method is technically applicable to black plastics. However, due to the limited reflection amount of black plastic debris, the measurement time is too long compared to the speed and throughput required to effectively sort all debris in a recycling plant. Therefore, so far, Raman spectroscopy has been proven difficult to be practically applied to black plastic sorting.
TapTechNews learned from the official announcement that Canon, by combining Raman spectroscopy with its measurement control equipment, has developed a tracking Raman spectroscopy technology, irradiating it onto plastics and ensuring that each plastic has sufficient measurement time according to its color, and even if black plastic products are mixed with other multiple-color plastic products, high-speed and high-precision identification can be achieved.
The equipment maintains a conveying speed of 1.5 meters per second and can sort 1 ton of plastic per hour. It can even be customized for customers according to throughput and installation space, changing the module or conveyor belt combination for tracking and measuring plastic parts.
Starting today, Canon will begin to accept market orders in large quantities for equipment including the TR-S1510 in the TR series.