National Recovery Technologies, Inc.

John T Rich

Edward J Sommer, Jr

Mary Anne Leugers

Terry W Glass

Muhammad A Shafi

Robert D Guenard

An apparatus and process that makes use of spectral information in the mid-infrared range (400 to 4500 cm) to identify recyclable materials containing barrier polymers from recyclable materials not containing barrier polymers, which includes projecting light containing the mid-infrared (MIR) range onto materials to be analyzed, dispersing the MIR light that has reflected from or passed through the materials or both into various wavelengths, measuring the intensity of the MIR light at least one wavelength responsive to differences between the materials, measuring the intensity of the MIR light at least one wavelength not responsive to differences between the materials in order to provide a reference, and comparing the measurements in order to identify barrier materials from non-barrier materials.

Process and apparatus for spectroscopic identification and sorting of barrier materials

A high accuracy rapid system for sorting a plurality of waste products by polymer type. The invention involves the application of Raman spectroscopy and complex identification techniques to identify and sort post-consumer plastics for recycling. The invention reads information unique to the molecular structure of the materials to be sorted to identify their chemical compositions and uses rapid high volume sorting techniques to sort them into product streams at commercially viable throughput rates. The system employs a laser diode (,) for irradiating the material sample (,), a spectrograph (,) is used to determine the Raman spectrum of the material sample (,) and a microprocessor based controller (,) is employed to identify the polymer type of the material sample (,).

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Lebanon, TN, United States of America

John T Rich