Environmental beneficiation of machining wastes - Part I: Material characterization of machining swarf

There are many industrial waste streams that currently are being deposited in landfills despite having the potential to be recycled and converted into useful products. A good example of this is automobile industry machining o perations, which generate finely divided metal particles ("swarf"). Swarf h as a very high iron content and great potential for re-use. However, it has a tendency to spontaneously oxidize, which leads to self-heating and obstr ucts recycling efforts. There is a need to limit the self-heating of swarf, but such control is difficult, because little information is available abo ut the physical characteristics of swarf. Hence, the objective of this stud y was to determine the properties of swarf and to identify promising method s to prevent spontaneous heating. The properties examined were particle mor phology, composition, size distribution, and surface properties.