Laser enables CRT TV recycling tech

Panasonic Corp. and Panasonic Eco Technology Center Co. Ltd (PETEC) have developed a laser-cut technology to recycle CRT TVs. The technology is implemented at PETEC's plant in Hyogo Prefecture, which is preparing to deal with the tons of CRT TVs that are expected to be discarded as Japan transitions to digital TV in 2011.

It is important to separate the front funnel and back panel of the CRT prior to recycling because they are made of different kinds of glass. Conventional separation uses an electrically heated wire around the joint, but this is time consuming and tedious. Instead of the heated wire, the new method uses a laser to cut the glass apart, making a cleaner cut while reducing processing time to 50s per CRT. The laser head of the innovative system has a "surface profiling" function to maintain a constant distance between the focal point and surface of the glass. Coupled with the "radiation energy" control adjusting laser beam light intensity to the circumferential velocity, the system achieves a high quality cut with no mixing between the front and funnel glass.

Panasonic's laser cutter is automated to measure the size (from 14 to 36 inches) and types (normal and wide) of CRT TVs and process with the laser conditions (38 different sets of conditions) suited to the size and type of each CRT. Panasonic will continue to study possibilities in applying such laser-based recycling technologies to flat-panel TVs, and further raise the efficiency of the whole TV recycling process, including the new recycling lines for flat-panel TVs established in April this year.