Riken Technos and Tohoku University Jointly Study Recycling Method for PVC Coating Material Used in Automotive Wire Harnesses

Riken Technos Corporation is collaborating with Tohoku University to develop recycling technology for wire harness coating material, a Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) product. The mainstream method for recycling wire harnesses from end-of-life vehicles is the nugget method, where they are crushed and separated into copper and coating material by specific gravity. While the copper is reused, recycling the coating material is difficult as it is a mix of resins including PVC, contaminated with copper powder. Our company is focusing on an advanced wet separation processing technology developed by a group at Tohoku University's Graduate School of Environmental Studies, which enables the recovery of high-quality copper and PVC coating material. This technology involves immersing the wire harness in an organic solvent to swell the PVC coating and then applying impact force with a ball mill to separate the copper wire and PVC coating. It has higher separation performance than the conventional method, allowing for the recovery of high-purity PVC. We have confirmed through lab studies that by optimizing the formulation, a compound containing up to 40% recovered coating can exhibit mechanical properties equivalent to conventional products.