The waste sorting machine consists of a hopper through which the waste is fed through; a fan and air channel through which the light weight materials are separated from the waste matrix; a belt conveyor which carries the left waste towards a magnet-fitted shaft/pulley which separates ferrous metals and also chambers into which the separated components of the wastes fall.
The design of the belt conveyor is specifically for the flat idler type. The cross-sectional area of load on the belt, or load stream area,
The municipal solid waste is considered to have the characteristic of refuse which include sluggishness regarding flowability, abrasive, and very light and fluffy – meaning it may be wind-swept.
For the belt width selected, the diameter of conveyor pulley drum, D, has been selected to be 100mm and to have a face width of about 300mm such that an edge clearance of about 50mm is allowed. The driven shaft on which the conveyor pulley drum is mounted carries a magnet of about 3kg which has been made to act at the centre of rotation. The rotational speed of the pulley, hence the speed of the shaft, which brings about the selected translational speed of the conveyor belt, is evaluated as
When the conveyor was operated, the fan was able to separate light materials from the waste stream. However, ferrous metals could not be separated from the rest of the stream. Hence, the waste stream was classified into light materials and heavy materials based on the sorting capability of the machine. The inability to separate ferrous metals may be due to the insufficient magnetic pull of the magnet or may be due to the speed of the conveyor belt.
