Aggregation of Thin Copper Wire by Ball Milling Treatment

Recycling processes of spent copper wires cosisnt of several steps of cutting and chopping processes for peeling covering materials followed by gravity separation processes, where copper is recovered. Because copper thin wires could be lost during further recycling processes, the wire may need to be further treated. In the present study, the copper thin wire was treated with ball milling to prevent the loss. Since the aggregation of the copper wire could be formed by bending and entangling the copper wire each other, the degree of flexion of the copper wire was measured after ball milling. When the 0.5 cm and 3 cm copper wires were used, the 0.5 cm copper wire was not bent and the 3 cm copper wires were aggregated regardless of the ball addition. When the 1 cm and 2 cm copper wires were used, the degree of flexion was remarkable when the balls were added. In the tests using 2 cm copper wires, the aggregation ratio of the copper wire gradually increased with the amount of the 20 mm alumina ball, and when 200 ml of 30 mm alumina ball was used, the aggregation ratio increased to 89.29 %, but after increasing the ball amount further, the aggregation ratio decreased. Thus, it is expected that the loss of the copper wire could be reducedif when the copper thin wire is treated with ball milling by the aggregation of copper thin wires.