• Vatanen, Saija
• Kuuva, Markku
• Tonteri, Hannele

Abstract

This report was created in the "Environmental technologyrequirements in the design of vehicles and work machines"project. A variety of equipment and machines are referredto as work machines, but for the purposes of this report,the term work machine will be used in reference totractors and forest machines, i.e., the products of thecompanies which participated in this project. Thesteering group of the project comprised of the followingcompanies: Valtra Inc., Timberjack Oy, Ponsse Oyj,Rautaruukki Group Corporate R & D, M-Filter Oy andTamglass Safety Glass Ltd.The mass % of metals in the material distribution of workmachines is app. 85, the mass % of rubber is app. 10 andthe mass % of plastics is app. 5. The main steelqualities used in work machines include unalloyed baseand quality steels or high-strength weldable steel. Themost common applications include bodies and parts of workmachines. Cast iron is used in, for example, cylinderblocks, piston rings, transmission components, gears,sprockets, brake drums or axles and shafts. Rubber canmainly be found in tyres. The majority of plastic partsused are found in the cabin, and the largest plasticparts usually include various types of protectors,casings, containers and fitted carpets. The windows ofwork machines can also be made of plastic.The methods of recycling unalloyed scrap steel and castiron already exist and are used relatively widely. Inaddition to metallurgical requirements, there are alsorequirements related to piece size for this type ofscrap. The coal content of scrap metal does not affectits recycling. Restrictions have been placed on blendcomponent contents. The terms of reception for scrap varyaccording to the steel factory and foundry.Since 1996, a recycling system for tyre rubber has beenin place in Finland. No established custom to recycleplastics is yet in existence. It would be appropriate toestablish a national procedure for the recycling and/orrecovery of plastics, especially since the use ofplastics in work machines appears to be on the increase.In the specification of end-of-life treatment of workmachines, close co-operation between the manufacturers ofwork machines, parts and materials, distributors,consumers, dismantlers and collectors and processors ofused materials is required. In order to be able to createand actively maintain such co-operative procedures,companies need to network in a new way. Co-operationbetween different manufacturers in the field willcomplement traditional co-operative procedures. To alarge extent, recycling procedures may then converge, inwhich case their practical implementation is best carriedout in co-operation with the different manufacturers.

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• glass
• glass
• strength
• steel
• iron
• rubber
• cast iron