Dry Washing Technology for Parts Recycling |
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A recycling practice will never be called effective if it generates significant environmental impact in the course of recycling resources. Based on this recognition, Ricoh has been making progress in developing resource-recirculating production systems. The development of original dry washing technology is among the latest examples. Previously, we used water to remove toner stain from used parts, which inevitably involves wastewater treatment and energy consumption to dry the washed parts. Using the new technology, which can achieve cleaning quality as high as that of ultrasonic cleaning, toner stain is scraped off by blasting it with tiny sheets of film, rather than water, at high speed. Its first practical use was for Ricoh Gotemba Plant's organic photoconductor unit cartridge recycling process, which saw considerably less operation time and less energy use for wastewater treatment and drying processes.
We intend to make this dry washing technology available at other production sites and for wider purposes.
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