Abstract
As a method to separate two different types of plastic, an electrostatic separator using roller type electrodes was developed. The separator consists of a plate electrode and four roller electrodes. An electric field is generated in the space between the plate and the roller electrodes. The separate experiment was performed on a sample containing ABS (Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene) and PS (polystyrene) plastic. ABS and PS particles become positively and negatively charged, respectively. When the charged particles are fed to the separator, ABS and PS particles are attracted to a plate and roller electrodes, respectively, because of Coulomb force. Therefore, the plastic mixture can be separated as a result of the difference of the trajectories. It was found that the high separating accuracy can be obtained. In addition, the analytical method was proposed to predict the recovery of particles.
