Thank you for all your help !
2006-10-08 03:17:25 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Chemistry
Metals are recycled by grinding them into small bits and melting them in a furnace. The metals are refined through heat processes to purify them and burn away any foreign matter like rubber, paint, oils, and dissimilar metals.
Light weight materials will float to the surface of the molten metal for skimming. Impurities which are heavier than the subject metal will sink to the bottom of the molten mass. Relatively pure metal will remain between the surface crud and the sunken debris.
In some processes chemicals are used to form bonds with the desired metals for extraction.
2006-10-08 03:23:58 · answer #1 · answered by zahbudar 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
First the metals are sorted. This is a very important step. Once the metal is melted, it is very hard to get rid of for instance a small amount copper mixed in with steel. If you mix the wrong metals, there is not much you can do with it. The metals are also sorted according to their alloys(an alloy is when you mix small amounts of other metals into a metal to make it stronger or stainless), so that they can use raw material, that is as close as possible to what they want in the finished product.
After sorting, the metal is melted and new alloys are added, to get the exact right amount. After this the metal is cast and ready to make a new product of.
With steel, you get a product, that is as good as new, but you don't make new aluminum cans from recycled ones. To make cans you need pure aluminum, but recycled ones contain grains of aluminum oxide. If you want to get rid of these, you have to heat the aluminum to a very high temperature and that costs a lot of energy, so they use recycled aluminum for casted products, where it does not matter so much.
PS. I mentioned the aluminum cans, because they lie about it in recycling commercials, when they say they make new cans out of old ones.
2006-10-08 04:05:25 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Metal is sorted by type of metal, then melted into ingots for reuse.
2006-10-08 03:20:13 · answer #3 · answered by Clown Knows 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
First they must collected,then they are sorted out,aluminum to it's self,iron and sleel to their own,and etc, they are also treated.
And sent to their respectable furnace were they're heated to melting point.were it is reproduce into its original state.
2006-10-08 03:37:40 · answer #4 · answered by joe 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They are melted and then reformed into a new item.
2006-10-08 03:18:41 · answer #5 · answered by Random-ask 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
collected, sorted, melted,
2006-10-08 04:02:15 · answer #6 · answered by Dr. J. 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋