Recycling of electrical motors by automatic disassembly

This paper presents a robotized workstation for end-of-life treatment of el ectrical motors with an electrical effect of about 1 kW. These motors can. for example, be found in washing machines and in industry. There are two ma in steps in the work. The first step is an inspection whereby the functiona lity of the motor is checked and classification either for re-use or for di sassembly is done. In the second step the motors classified for disassembly are disassembled in a robotized automatic station. In the initial step mea surements art, performed during a start-up sequence of about 1 s. By measur ing the rotation speed and the current and voltage of the three phases of t he motor classification for either reuse or disassembly can be done. During the disassembly work, vision data are fused in order to classify the motor s according to their type. The vision system also feeds the control system of the robot with various object co-ordinates, to facilitate correct operat ion of the robot. Finally, tests with a vision system and eddy-current equi pment are performed to decide whether all copper has been removed from the stator.