-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- design007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueLevel Up Your Design Skills
This month, our contributors discuss the PCB design classes available at IPC APEX EXPO 2024. As they explain, these courses cover everything from the basics of design through avoiding over-constraining high-speed boards, and so much more!
Opportunities and Challenges
In this issue, our expert contributors discuss the many opportunities and challenges in the PCB design community, and what can be done to grow the numbers of PCB designers—and design instructors.
Embedded Design Techniques
Our expert contributors provide the knowledge this month that designers need to be aware of to make intelligent, educated decisions about embedded design. Many design and manufacturing hurdles can trip up designers who are new to this technology.
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - design007 Magazine
Sigma Mecer: Turning Copper ‘Green’
October 5, 2023 | Nolan Johnson, PCB007 MagazineEstimated reading time: 1 minute
Andreas Littorin is CEO at Sigma Engineering AB. The company has been manufacturing equipment for the PCB industry for 45 years, mainly a mature product for copper recycling of alkaline and acidic etchants in the PCB manufacturing process.
Nolan Johnson: Andreas, Sigma Mecer has installed equipment at the Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL) facility. Tell me about the products in your portfolio.
Andreas Littorin: We are an equipment manufacturer for the PCB industry and have been in operation for 45 years. We have a mature product for copper recycling of alkaline and acidic etchants in the PCB manufacturing process.
Johnson: You were recently selected by SEL for its brand-new facility here in Idaho. Tell me about your equipment that was selected for its facility.
Littorin: SEL chose an acidic copper recycling system, a quite large one. It's capable of recycling 15 kgs (about 33 pounds) of copper per hour, all day, all year long. There's also a subsystem for oxidation and regeneration of the etchant. So, they have an oxidation reactor system connected to the etching line, and soon one more for the second etching line that is coming.
Johnson: When a facility is looking to reduce waste, or even to be zero waste, how important is this sort of equipment?
Littorin: In terms of etching operations, it is very important. In terms of PCBs, in general, it's just one of the processes customers have in their plant. But without the copper recycling system, you need to “feed-and-bleed” the chemistry, sending in new and sending out spent chemistry all the time. It's paramount to do recycling to achieve zero waste for the etching operation.
To read this entire conversation, which appeared in the September 2023 issue of PCB007 Magazine, click here.
Suggested Items
Argonne, Toyota Collaborate on Cutting-Edge Battery Recycling Process
05/01/2024 | BUSINESS WIREThe U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has recently launched a collaboration with Toyota Motor North America that could reduce the nation’s reliance on foreign sources of battery materials.
The Need for a Holistic Global Sustainability Standard
04/10/2024 | Michael Ford, Aegis SoftwareNo one can deny that the resources of our fragile planet are finite. The environment seems like a third party, subject to constant degradation. We’re acutely aware of the effects of pollution on our climate, and despite our “throw-away” culture, recycling and recovery of materials has remained relatively expensive, even as we use more energy just to survive.
AT&S Shines with Purest Copper on World Recycling Day
03/18/2024 | AT&SThe Styrian microelectronics specialist AT&S is taking World Recycling Day as an opportunity to review the progress that has been made in recent months at its sites around the world in terms of the efficient use of resources:
End-of-Life Li-ion Battery Sustainability: Its Crucial Role Over the Coming Years
12/08/2023 | PRNewswireLithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries are used ubiquitously in daily life, and the demand for Li-ion batteries has continued to increase over the last decade, including in consumer electronics and portable devices, electric vehicles (EVs), and stationary energy storage systems.
Conecsus Metals Mexico to Exhibit Waste Recycling Solutions at SMTA Guadalajara Expo & Tech Forum
09/26/2023 | Conecsus Metals MéxicoConecsus Metals México, an innovative environmental technology and recycling company, will exhibit at the SMTA Foro Tecnico & Expo, Guadalajara, Jalisco, México, on Wednesday, October 25, 2023, beginning at 11:00 a.m.