Patent Description:
Under the circumstance of massive growth of retired power batteries and strict requirements on current environmental protection laws and regulations, higher requirements are put forward for power battery recycling and resourcing process. However, the sorting of materials after the power battery being crushed is always a troublesome problem during the actual recycling process, and the sorting of materials with higher precision is even more difficult to break through.

Waste lithium batteries contain a large amount of non-renewable metal resources with high economic values, such as cobalt, lithium, nickel, copper, aluminum and others. If the waste or unqualified lithium batteries can be effectively recycled, it can not only reduce the pressure of waste file batteries on the environment, but also can avoid the waste of metal resources such as cobalt, nickel and others. Pre-processing the waste lithium batteries of the current recycling technology route includes discharging, disassembly, comminution and sorting. Wherein, the sorting is the difficulty in the process of pre-processing, especially the higher requirements on the precision of the powder obtained after the sorting, Therefore, a single sorting means, such as window sorting and magnetic sorting, are difficult to meet the current production requirements. Therefore, with respect to such requirements, it is necessary to design a special process to configure a corresponding apparatus and sort the powder materials of the power battery with the combination of two.

The sorting process of crushed powder materials of the traditional lithium battery generally only relates to a single sorting method, such as "waste lithium battery sorting and recycling equipment" (<CIT>) and "wind sorting apparatus for waste lithium battery anode material" (<CIT>). However, this traditional sorting method cannot effectively sort according to the type of the materials, but can only sort according to the size of the materials. The technology is relatively backward.

<CIT> discloses a process of separating copper and tin of waste circuit boards. In the process firstly the waste circuit boards are crushed by several times, then iron removal by magnetic sorting processing, eddy current sorting and airflow sorting are carried out sequentially. After that, the resin particles and metal particles containing copper and tin are separated, and then the tin is recycled through heating and liquefying the tin in the mixed metal particles by the copper and tin separator.

<CIT> discloses a method of separating waste circuit boards, comprising steps of crushing, smashing, and sorting by high-voltage electrostatic.

<CIT> discloses a bouncing sorting device to mechanically sort the solid wastes by the friction between the articles without pre-processing the waste materials.

<CIT> discloses a method of recycling negative electrode materials from waste lithium batteries, comprising steps: crushing waste negative electrode materials and then feeding the materials into the airflow sorter to separate the heavy powders such as metal powders and light powders such as carbon powder; delivering the dust collected by the airflow sorter into a pulse dust collector; feeding the dust to an electrostatic separator to separate the metal and dust; mixing the metal powders collected by the airflow sorter and the electrostatic separator, then delivering the mixed materials into a magnetic sorter to separate the copper and nickel.

The present invention intends to solve at least one of the technical problems in the current technology. For this purpose, the present invention provides a method for power battery automatic fine-quantity sorting and apparatus thereof, which can realize the high-purity separation of copper, iron, aluminum, graphite, positive electrode material, and other materials in the crushed materials of the waste battery.

To achieve the above purposes, the present invention adopts the following technical solution:
A method for power battery automatic fine-quantity sorting comprises the steps of:.

Preferably, in step S1, the stack thickness of the leveled material is <NUM>-<NUM>.

Preferably, in step S2, the voltage of the electrostatic processing is <NUM>-<NUM> kV.

During the electrostatic processing, due to the difference of material conductivity, the negative charge on the conductor particles (graphite powder, collector powder) with poor dielectric properties is quickly conducted away by the grounded electrode, therefore the conductor particles have a positive charge; however, non-conductive particles (positive electrode material powder) have no such effect, therefore the positive electrode material powder can be obtained.

A sorting apparatus based on the method for power battery automatic fine-quantity sorting, along the direction of material transmission, successively is provided with:
A magnetic sorting device, including a permanent magnet rolling wheel, an iron powder hopper is provided at the lower left of the permanent magnet rolling wheel;.

An electrostatic sorting device, located at the lower right of the permanent magnet rolling wheel, including a grounded roller electrode, a corona electrode, and a static electrode are successively provided at the upper right of the roller electrode, and a brush in contact with the roller electrode is provided at the lower left;.

A bouncing sorting device, located at the lower right of the roller electrode, including a drive wheel, a driven wheel and a conveyor belt, a deflecting wheel, and a carrier rod is provided below the driven wheel, one end of the carrier rod is connected to the deflecting wheel to form an eccentric wheel mechanism, and the other end is connected to the driven wheel.

Preferably, the sorting apparatus also includes a feed inlet and a scraper provided between the feed inlet and the permanent magnet rolling wheel.

Preferably, an inclined guide plate is provided between the permanent magnet rolling wheel and the roller electrode.

Preferably, a positive electrode material powder hopper is provided below the brush.

Preferably, the driving wheel and the deflecting wheel are driven by the same motor.

Preferably, a collector hopper and a graphite powder hopper are provided successively at the lower right of the driven wheel.

Preferably, the rotating speed of the permanent magnet rolling wheel is <NUM>-<NUM>/s.

Preferably, the linear speed of the conveyor belt is <NUM>-<NUM>/s and the amplitude of the driven wheel is <NUM>-<NUM>.

Preferably, the rotating speed of the roller electrode is <NUM>-<NUM> r/min.

The above and/or additional aspects and advantages of the present invention will become obvious and easy to understand with the description of the embodiments in combination with the following Figures, wherein:
<FIG> is a schematic diagram of an overall structure of a sorting apparatus of the present invention.

Reference numerals: permanent magnet rolling wheel <NUM>, iron powder hopper <NUM>, corona electrode <NUM>, electrostatic electrode <NUM>, roller electrode <NUM>, brush <NUM>, drive wheel <NUM>, driven wheel <NUM>, conveyor belt <NUM>, deflecting wheel <NUM>, carrier rod <NUM>, collector hopper <NUM>, graphite powder hopper <NUM>, positive electrode material powder hopper <NUM>, motor <NUM>, feed inlet <NUM>, scraper <NUM>, and guide plate <NUM>.

The present invention is more specifically illustrated in combination with the embodiments. The embodiments of the present invention are not limited to the following embodiments and variations and changes of the present invention in any forms shall all be within the scope of the present invention.

In the description of the present invention, it should be understood that the azimuth description, such as azimuth or location relationship indicated by up, down, front, back, left, and right, is based on the azimuth or location relationship shown in the Drawings, and is only for the convenience of the description of the present invention and for simplifying the description, but not indicates or suggests that the apparatus or component indicated must have a particular azimuth or is constructed or operated in a particular azimuth, therefore, shall not be construed as a limitation to the present invention.

In the description of the present invention, unless otherwise well defined, terms such as provide, install and connect shall be interpreted in a broad sense, and those skilled in the art can reasonably determine the specific meanings of the above terms in the present invention in combination with the specific contents of the technical solution.

Referring to <FIG>, a method for power battery automatic fine-quantity sorting, comprises the following steps of:.

A sorting apparatus based on the method for power battery automatic fine-quantity sorting, along the direction of material transmission successively is provided with:.

In some embodiments thereof, the rotating speed of the permanent magnet rolling wheel <NUM> is <NUM>-<NUM>/s.

In some embodiments thereof, the linear speed of the conveyor belt <NUM> is <NUM>-<NUM>/s and the amplitude of the driven wheel <NUM> is <NUM>-<NUM>.

In some embodiments thereof, the rotating speed of the roller electrode <NUM> is <NUM>-<NUM> r/min.

In some embodiments thereof, a feed inlet <NUM> and a scraper <NUM> are also included, the scraper provided between the feed inlet <NUM> and the permanent magnet rolling wheel <NUM>. The scraper <NUM> is used to level the material to avoid the stacking being too thick to influence the sorting effects.

In some embodiments thereof, an inclined guide plate <NUM> is provided between the permanent magnet rolling wheel <NUM> and the roller electrode <NUM>, the guide plate <NUM> having a smooth surface to guide the material slide towards the roller electrode <NUM>.

In some embodiments thereof, a positive electrode material powder hopper <NUM> is provided below the brush <NUM> to contain positive electrode material powders scraped down by the brush <NUM>.

In some embodiments thereof, the driving wheel <NUM> and the deflecting wheel <NUM> are driven by the same motor <NUM> to reduce unnecessary electric power consumption.

In some embodiments thereof, a collector hopper <NUM> and a graphite powder hopper <NUM> are provided successively at the lower right of the driven wheel <NUM> to contain collector and graphite powder bounced out from the bouncing sorting device.

It should be understood that the crushed mixture material of the lithium battery has different physical properties. Iron has magnetic properties, and the anode material powder is usually nickel cobalt lithium manganese and lithium nickel manganese, having no magnetism or electrical conductivity, while the collector and graphite powder have electrical conductivity. The core of the present invention is to realize physical sorting according to different physical properties of various materials.

A method for power battery automatic fine-quantity sorting, includes the following steps of:.

The steps of embodiment <NUM> are the same with those of embodiment <NUM>, the difference is in step S1, the rotating speed of the permanent magnet rolling wheel <NUM> is <NUM>/s. The voltage in step S2 is <NUM> kV and the rotating speed of the roller electrode <NUM> is <NUM> r/min; the linear speed of the conveyor belt <NUM> in step S3 is <NUM>/s and the amplitude of the driven wheel <NUM> is <NUM>/s.

The wind sorting separating apparatus of the Chinese patent "wind sorting apparatus for waste lithium battery anode material" (<CIT>) is used for separation.

Material sorting is performed according to the above embodiment <NUM> and the comparative example, the obtained materials such as iron powder, positive electrode material powder, collector powder and graphite powder were respectively tested for impurity elements, and the results were shown in Table <NUM>, Table <NUM>, Table <NUM> and Table <NUM>, respectively. The results show that the impurity content of embodiment <NUM> is superior to the comparative example.

As can be seen from Table <NUM>, the impurity content of iron powder obtained by magnetic sorting processing is very low and the magnetic sorting effect is preferable.

As can be seen from Table <NUM>, the impurity content of positive electrode material obtained by electrostatic sorting processing is very low and the electrostatic sorting effect is preferable.

Claim 1:
A method for power battery automatic fine-quantity sorting, characterized by comprising:
S1. crushing and leveling a material, and performing a magnetic sorting processing to sort out iron powder;
S2. performing an electrostatic processing on the material after being subjected to the magnetic sorting processing to sort out positive electrode material powder;
S3. performing a bounce processing on the material after being subjected to the electrostatic processing to sort out collector and graphite powder; and
wherein, a sorting apparatus based on the method for power battery automatic fine-quantity sorting, along the direction of material transmission, is successively provided with:
a magnetic sorting device, comprising a permanent magnet rolling wheel (<NUM>), an iron powder hopper (<NUM>) is provided at the lower left of the permanent magnet rolling wheel (<NUM>);
an electrostatic sorting device, located at the lower right of the permanent magnet rolling wheel (<NUM>), comprising a grounded roller electrode (<NUM>), a corona electrode (<NUM>) and a static electrode (<NUM>) successively provided at the upper right of the roller electrode (<NUM>), and a brush (<NUM>) in contact with the roller electrode (<NUM>) provided at the lower left; the corona electrode (<NUM>), the static electrode (<NUM>) and the brush (<NUM>) are located at <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> o'clock direction of the roller electrode (<NUM>) respectively;
a bouncing sorting device, located at the lower right of the roller electrode (<NUM>), comprising a drive wheel (<NUM>), a driven wheel (<NUM>) and a conveyor belt (<NUM>), a deflecting wheel (<NUM>) and a carrier rod (<NUM>) being provided below the driven wheel (<NUM>), one end of the carrier rod (<NUM>) being connected to the deflecting wheel (<NUM>) to form an eccentric wheel mechanism, and the other end being connected to the driven wheel (<NUM>).