Episode 1 - The old CRT

de | Dec. 17, 2013 | News

I think all of you remember your first CRT monitor:  occupied half of the desk, black and white (the lucky ones had the color one), but of which you were very proud of, as it was the latest technology at that time. Subsequently technology evolved and you made the transition to an LCD that doesn't need so much space, offers superior image quality, but have you ever wondered what happened to the old monitor after you handed it over to a specialized operator? In the next part of the article we will switch to a more serious tone, and in order to satisfy your curiosity I'm going to illustrate you the stages through which an old CRT monitor passes through after entering the recycling road.

First of all we have to clarify why we have to recycle a CRT monitor. The answer is within reach for anyone, knowing the fact that it contains hazardous substances such as lead, mercury, phosphorus, cadmium, Luminous powder, but don't forget the capacitor inside (contains various inorganic and organic acids). How can these substances affect us? Most of the times once it gets to the landfill the monitor gets broken, thus releasing toxic substances into the ground but also into the atmosphere thus affecting the groundwater and the ozone layer. Also the aspect of recovery of materials such as plastic, iron, aluminum, copper and other metals as rare as Yttrium and Europium (extracted from Luminous powder) should not be neglected as it constitutes a strong argument in favor of recycling.

Once handed over by the population the WEEE reach authorized operators of such equipment that follows the European norms. As you'll see in the next images, special attention is given to the protective equipment that the workers wear.

The whole process through which a CRT goes from the moment it passes through the gates of the operator, consists of the following steps:

1.Weighting the amount of CRT monitors that are going to be recycled.

2. The transport of the equipment that is going to be processed.

3. Plating the CRT monitors on the band for their disassembly.

4. Treatment operations of the CRT monitor:

4.1. Depollution operation through the removal of the external cables. 

4.2. Disassembly operation - separation of the following items, which are then sent to specialized operators for their recovery.

  •     Plastic parts (19%)
  •     Components of iron (5%)
  •     Components of copper (6%)
  •     Aluminum components (1%)
  •     Capacitor (1%)
  •     Circuit boards (6%)
  •     CRT tube (57%)

 

 

 

4.3.RT processing operation consists of the following:

4.3.1 Sending the CRT tube to another work table for processing.

4.3.2 Removal of: deflection coil, electron gun and the implosion metal band .The surface of the tube after removing the band is cleaned in order to prevent the elimination in the atmosphere of the dangerous compounds as a consequence of the treatment process of the CRT tube.

4.3.3 The next step in treatment operation of the CRT tube is done with the technique called Hot Band That separate the front of the cone by applying a heat shock (nickel wire) directly to the bonding between the two sides.

 
4.3.4 The final step in the treatment process of the CRT tube is the aspiration of the luminophore powder, which is considered a toxic substance.

5. The last step but the most important is capitalizing the recovered items, here you can see in what they can turn.

All being said, in case you still have an old monitor around the house, don't forget that he has to follow the recycling way!

The photos were made with the support of Greenweee International.