Looking for breakthrough ideas for innovation challenges? Try Patsnap Eureka!

Supply recycling system and valuable-metal recovering system

a recycling system and valuable metal technology, applied in the field of toner product recycling technology, can solve the problems of inability to semi-permanently continue recycling processing, no longer economical value of recycling by that means, and means that must be abandoned, so as to achieve low powdering ratio, reduce production costs, and high molding strength

Inactive Publication Date: 2006-01-05
RICOH KK +1
View PDF4 Cites 7 Cited by
  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides a supply recycling system and a valuable-metal recovering system for recycling and reusing toner and other supply goods used in office-automation equipment. The system includes a toner refilling process and a steelmaking-dust molding process, which involves blending waste toner with steelmaking dust and molding it into a valuable-metal-containing product. The recovered valuable metal can then be reused in the same or other equipment. The technical effects of the invention include reducing waste and promoting sustainability in the supply recycling process, as well as providing a valuable-metal recovery system for recycling and reuse of waste toner.

Problems solved by technology

However, in actual practice, it is not possible to semi-permanently continue recycling processing by only the means ranking high in terms of desirability, for example, (1) At-Home Reuse, and after a given time period elapses, such recycling means must be abandoned.
This is because the functions of the product become obsolete over the given time period, or rather, those functions become no longer useful in the market (or for the user), and therefore, there is no longer economical value in recycling by that means.
However, for the proposal according to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-3063, in actual practice, the recycling processing means is implemented while losing value (the side supplying the toner, for example, pays money to the processing side), and the object of profitable implementation cannot be achieved.
This is because, in the proposal, the resin (binding resin) as a main component of the toner does not create sufficient technological added value.
Accordingly, the functional efficacy of toner as a raw material for sintering is low, and therefore, toner does not have economic added value.
A conventional binder has various drawbacks, such as that it requires moisture for granulating, the shape retention property thereof is poor, and, when the granulation molded product is used, a large quantity of black smoke is emitted and deteriorates the working environment, and the granulation molded product overheats.
This technique focuses on the point that the conventional binder lacks versatility, and uses toner as a binder of a deoxidizer for steel manufacturing.
On the other hand, for the deoxidizer, at the time of granulation molding, the binder is used under compression, and inevitably generates heat due to the friction at this time.
However, the proposal in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-138320 has problems yet unsolved.
A first problem is that, for the deoxidizer proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-138320, magnetic toners using Fe are not preferable.
Toners that can be used as the binder are limited to non-magnetic toners that do not use Fe, because Fe itself does not have a deoxidizing function (aluminum dust has a deoxidizing function), and because it is not a resin component, therefore, does not function as a binder.
Therefore, the functionality as a deoxidizer is poor, and wasteful portions are generated.
However, steel manufacturers require “deoxidizing functions” in the deoxidizer.
A second problem is that Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-138320 proposes recycling of toner, but does not propose an effective recycling of toner bottles that are containers for the toner and that are supply goods of OA equipment.

Method used

the structure of the environmentally friendly knitted fabric provided by the present invention; figure 2 Flow chart of the yarn wrapping machine for environmentally friendly knitted fabrics and storage devices; image 3 Is the parameter map of the yarn covering machine
View more

Image

Smart Image Click on the blue labels to locate them in the text.
Viewing Examples
Smart Image
  • Supply recycling system and valuable-metal recovering system
  • Supply recycling system and valuable-metal recovering system
  • Supply recycling system and valuable-metal recovering system

Examples

Experimental program
Comparison scheme
Effect test

Embodiment Construction

[0048] Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be explained in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0049]FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a supply recycling system according to an embodiment of the present invention. According to the present embodiment, a network 20 is used, which can be any of various types of networks including the Internet, an intranet, or the like. The PCs in FIG. 1 are terminal devices such as a personal computer used in respective processes and peripheral equipment thereof (e.g., a functional part such as a board having a communication function, or equipment such as a printer). Any known structure and any type thereof can be employed for the terminal device PC.

[0050] As shown in FIG. 1, a used toner bottle 15 is collected from the market in a toner refilling process 11. There are two types of forms in recovering the used toner bottle 15. A first form is that the toner bottle 15 is recovered per product main body as is in the ...

the structure of the environmentally friendly knitted fabric provided by the present invention; figure 2 Flow chart of the yarn wrapping machine for environmentally friendly knitted fabrics and storage devices; image 3 Is the parameter map of the yarn covering machine
Login to View More

PUM

PropertyMeasurementUnit
softening pointaaaaaaaaaa
softening pointaaaaaaaaaa
colorsaaaaaaaaaa
Login to View More

Abstract

A supply recycling system for recycling supply goods used in an office-automation equipment includes a toner refilling process including removing waste toner from a toner bottle retrieved from a market, and filling the toner bottle with new toner; and a steelmaking-dust molding process including blending the waste toner removed at the toner refilling process with steelmaking dust, and molding the steelmaking dust blended with the waste toner.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] The present document incorporates by reference the entire contents of Japanese priority document, 2004-174787 filed in Japan on Jun. 11, 2004. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1) Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technology for recycling a toner product of office-automation (OA) equipment such as an image forming apparatus. [0003] 2) Description of the Related Art [0004] In contemporary society, the importance of environmental problems becomes an increased center of recognition. Therefore, consumers and investors strictly evaluate a company based on an environmental effort of the company. Accordingly, in addition to the ongoing revenue-generating activities, companies now have to promote activities for preserving the environment. [0005] Accordingly, from a standpoint of effective use of resources and reduction of waste products, an establishment of recycling systems to recycle products, parts, and materials is ...

Claims

the structure of the environmentally friendly knitted fabric provided by the present invention; figure 2 Flow chart of the yarn wrapping machine for environmentally friendly knitted fabrics and storage devices; image 3 Is the parameter map of the yarn covering machine
Login to View More

Application Information

Patent Timeline
no application Login to View More
Patent Type & Authority Applications(United States)
IPC IPC(8): C21B13/12C21C5/52B09B3/00G03G21/00C21C5/56C21C7/00C21C7/04C22B1/244C22B1/245C22B7/02
CPCC21C5/56C22B7/02C22B1/245C21C7/0056Y02P10/20
Inventor MORII, YOSHIHIROKISHI, HIROYUKISOUMA, SATOSUMATSUURA, HIROYUKITORII, KAZUMA
Owner RICOH KK
Who we serve
  • R&D Engineer
  • R&D Manager
  • IP Professional
Why Patsnap Eureka
  • Industry Leading Data Capabilities
  • Powerful AI technology
  • Patent DNA Extraction
Social media
Patsnap Eureka Blog
Learn More
PatSnap group products