Design and Control of Pneumatic System for Recycling Classification of Non-Ferrous Metals

South Korea is a resource-dependent country that relies on the import of most metal resources. Therefore, we should save resources through recycling. In particular, the recycle rate of non-ferrous metals is very low. This is due to the limitations of the recycling technology currently in use. To overcome these limitations, non-ferrous metal recycling studies using laser induced breakdown spectroscopy are underway. In this paper, we will discuss an automatic metal classification system that receives metal information from a laser-induced breakdown spectrum and classifies a metal scrap by material. Currently, sorting systems use non-contact pneumatic systems. Compared to the contact method, the system is durable and is controlled at high-speed. This is because the system does not directly contact the metal scrap. Therefore, we will study how to effectively use the flow rate by modeling the pneumatic system.