Manufactured article recycling system

• US 5,965,858 A
• Filed: 10/15/1996
• Issued: 10/12/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/1994
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Suzuki, Tatsuya, Hashimoto, Kazushige, Ochiai, Yuuji
• Primary Examiner(s): Hajec, Donald
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dunn, Drew A.
• Application Number:
  US08/722,202
• Time in Patent Office: 1,092 Days
• Field of Search: 209/606, 209/636, 209/651, 209/655, 209/629, 209/630, 235/375, 235/376, 705/28, 705/29
• US Class Current: 235/375
• CPC Class Codes: B29B 2017/0089 Recycling systems, wherein the flow of products between producers, sellers and consumers includes at least a recycling step, e.g. the products being fed back to the sellers or to the producers for recycling purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2219/10 Environmental application, e.g. waste reduction, pollution control, compliance with environmental legislation
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 17/00 Methods or arrangements for effecting co-operative working between equipments covered by two or more of main groups G06K1/00 - G06K15/00, e.g. automatic card files incorporating conveying and reading operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0875 Itemisation or classification of parts, supplies or services, e.g. bill of materials
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 3/00 Registering or indicating the condition or the working of machines or other apparatus, other than vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 80/10 Efficient use of energy, e.g. using compressed air or pressurized fluid as energy carrier
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

A system promoting a proper recycle of discarded article and contributing economization of energy consumption which will otherwise increase, reduction in the amount of wastes and prevention of environmental pollution due to harmful substances. A recycle system includes an input unit for inputting information concerning article, a storage for storing databases of information for reuse of the articles, a recycle processing method deciding processor for deciding a recycle processing for the article in accordance with recycling rules determined previously by referencing the information for the reuse of the article as contained in the database stored in the storage unit on the basis of the information concerning the article inputted through the input unit, and a recycle factory equipment control unit functioning as an output unit for outputting the result of the decision to a succeeding process.

Claims

1. A manufactured article recycling system for deciding a recycle processing for realizing a method of reusing a manufactured article, said system comprising:

reading means for reading information affixed to said article;

storage means for storing a database of article reuse oriented information which bears correspondence to said information affixed to said article for reuse of said article;

recycle decision means for deciding said recycle processing for said article by referencing said article reuse oriented information of said database stored in said storage means on a basis of the information affixed to the article inputted through said reading means; and

output means for outputting a result of a decision made for said article by said recycle decision means;

wherein the information affixed to the article and inputted through said reading means contains information concerning at least name of the article, manufacturer name of the article, model name of the article, manufactured date, manufacturing number and component parts of the article;

wherein said storage means includes as said database an article specifications information database for storing life limit information concerning a restoration-allowable life limit of said article; and

wherein said recycle decision means makes decision on the basis of the information affixed to said article as inputted through said reading means as to whether or not said article satisfies a condition that said article has a remaining life falling within said restoration-allowable life limit of said article as stored in said article specifications information database, wherein when the remaining life of said article falls within said restoration-allowable life limit, said recycle decision means issues a recycle processing decision result indicating that said article is subject to restoration as a restored article, and if otherwise, said recycle decision means issues a recycle processing decision result indicating that said article is subject to a disassembling processing for disassembling said article to individual component parts.

2. A manufactured article recycling system according to claim 1,

characterized in that said storage means includes as said database at least one of a statutory regulation and a standard information database storing at least one of statutory regulation information concerning statutory regulations imposed on manufactured articles on an article-by-article basis and standard information concerning standards previously established for manufactured articles on an article-by-article basis;

and

that said recycle decision means is so arranged that when said article is decided as being subject to restoration as a restored article, said recycle decision means further makes decision on the basis of the information affixed to said article and inputted through said reading means as to whether or not said article conforms to said statutory regulation information and said standard information relevant to said article and stored in said at least one of statutory regulation and standard information database, wherein when said statutory regulation information and said standard information are abided by said article, said recycle decision means issues a recycle processing decision result indicating that said article is subject to restoration as a restored article, and if otherwise, said recycle decision means issues a recycle processing decision result indicating that said article is subjected to a disassembling processing for disassembling said article to individual component parts.

3. A manufactured article recycling system according to claim 2,

characterized in that the article specifications information database further stores therein information concerning quality check procedure to be performed for each article and quality criterion information;

said recycle decision means is arranged such that when said recycle decision means indicates as the result of said recycle processing decision that said article is subject to restoration, said recycle decision means extracts the information of said quality check procedure and said quality criterion information from said article specifications information database; and

that said output means outputs the information of said quality check procedure and said quality criterion of said article as extracted by said recycle decision means.

4. A manufactured article recycling system according to claim 2,

characterized in that said system further comprises affixing means for affixing information of shipping date when the manufactured article decided as being subject to the restoration as a restored article is transferred to a restoration process.

5. A manufactured article recycling system according to claim 1,

characterized in that the information affixed to said manufactured article and inputted through said reading means further contains part information concerning component parts of said article;

said at least one of statutory regulation and standard information database further stores the statutory regulation information and the standard information for the component parts of said article, respectively; and

that said recycle decision means is so arranged that when said article is decided as being subject to said disassembling processing falls within the restoration-allowable life limit and when said article does not conform to said statutory regulation information and said standard information, said recycle decision means further makes decision for each of said component parts as to whether or not said component part is subject to reuse and as to whether or not said component part conforms to said statutory regulation information and said standard information relevant to said component part and stored in said at least one of statutory regulation and standard information database, wherein when said component part is subject to reuse and when said statutory regulation information and said standard information are abided by said component part, said recycle decision means issues a recycle processing decision result indicating that said component part is a reusable component part, and if otherwise, said recycle decision means issues a recycle processing decision result indicating that said component part is subjected to other recycle than the reuse.

6. A manufactured article recycling system according to claim 5,

characterized in that the article specifications information database further stores therein information concerning quality check procedure to be performed for each component part and quality criterion information;

said recycle decision means is arranged such that when said recycle decision means indicates as the result of said recycle processing decision that said component part is reusable, said recycle decision means extracts the information of said quality check procedure and said quality criterion information from said article specifications information database; and

that said output means outputs the information of said quality check procedure and said quality criterion of said component part as extracted by said recycle decision means.

7. A manufactured article recycling system according to claim 5,

characterized in that the information affixed to the manufactured article and inputted through said reading means further contains information of materials of said component parts;

said storage means includes as said database a material-based recycle processing method database which stores information concerning harmfulness or hazardousness of materials of said component parts and recycle processing methods for said materials, respectively;

said recycle decision means makes decisions for the component parts decided as being subject to other recycle than said reuse as to whether the material of said component part inputted through said reading means is harmful or hazardous by referencing said material-based recycle processing method database, wherein when said material of the component part is decided as being harmful or hazardous, said recycle decision means extracts a recycle processing method for said component part by referencing said material-based recycle processing method database; and

that said output means outputs the information of said recycle processing method of said component part as extracted by said recycle decision means.

8. A manufactured article recycling system according to claim 7,

characterized in that said material-based recycle processing method database stores therein classifying procedures and detaching work procedures for the component parts of harmful or hazardous materials as said recycle processing method;

said recycle decision means extracts the classifying procedures and the detaching work procedures for the component parts of harmful or hazardous material for the article which is decided as being subject to said disassembling processing by referencing said material-based recycle processing method database; and

that said output means outputs the classifying procedures and the detaching procedures for said component parts as extracted by said recycle decision means.

9. A manufactured article recycling system according to claim 8,

characterized in that said output means issues documents indicating absence of harmfulness or hazardousness in the component parts remaining after discriminative removal of said component parts of harmful or hazardous materials.

10. A manufactured article recycling system according to claim 5,

characterized in that the information affixed to the manufactured article and inputted through said reading means further contains information of materials of said component parts;

and

that said recycle decision means makes decisions for the component parts decided as being subject to other recycle than said reuse as to whether or not the material of said component part inputted through said reading means is a composite material constituted by at least two types of substances, wherein when said material of the component part is decided as being a composite material, said recycle decision means issues as the result of said recycle processing decision an indication that said component part necessitates at least one of fragmentation (shredding) and separation treatment.

11. A manufactured article recycling system according to claim 5,

characterized in that the information affixed to the manufactured article and inputted through said reading means further contains information of materials of said component parts;

said storage means includes as said database a material-based recycle processing method database which stores information concerning capability of restoration or burning or disposability as waste of said component parts, respectively; and

that said recycle decision means makes decisions for the component parts decided as being subject to other recycle than said reuse as to whether the material of said component part inputted through said reading means is restorable or burnable or disposable, wherein result of said decision is adopted as the result of said recycle processing decision.

12. A manufactured article recycling system according to claim 5,

characterized in that said storage means includes as said database a part-based recycle processing method database which stores recycle processing methods for said component parts, respectively;

said recycle decision means extracts the recycle processing method for the component part decided as being subject to other recycle than said reuse by referencing said part-based recycle processing method database; and

that said output means outputs the information of said recycle processing method of said component part as extracted by said recycle decision means.

13. A manufactured article recycling system according to claim 1,

characterized in that said article specifications information database further stores therein disassembling procedures for component parts, respectively, of each article;

said recycle decision means extracts the disassembling procedures for the component parts of the article which is decided as being subject to said disassembling processing by referencing said article specifications information database; and

that said output means outputs the disassembling procedures of the component parts as extracted by said recycle decision means.

14. A manufactured article recycling system according to claim 13,

characterized in that said output means includes at least one of voice output means for generating voice information, video information output means for generating image information and printing means for generating printed information in order to output the detaching procedures for said component parts.

15. A manufactured article recycling system according to claim 1,

characterized in that said system further comprises decision result storage means for storing the results of the decisions made by said recycle decision means.

16. A manufactured article recycling system according to claim 1,

characterized in that said storage means includes as said database a market information database which stores price information on the market of used articles for said article;

said recycle decision means extracts said used article market price information for the article decided as being subject to restoration from said market information database; and

that said output means outputs the used article market price information for said article as extracted by said recycle decision means.

17. A manufactured article recycling system according to claim 1,

characterized in that said output means includes at least one of voice output means for generating voice information, video information output means for generating image information and printing means for generating printed information in order to output the results of the decision made by said recycle decision means.

18. A manufactured article recycling system according to claim 1,

characterized in that said reading means for reading the information affixed to said article includes at least one selected from a group which consists of connecting means connected to said article for reading information affixed to said article, radio receiver means for receiving information affixed to the article sent out from radio transmitter means which is provided in association with said article, bar code reading means for reading a bar code when information affixed to said article is indicated by the bar code, and driving means for driving removable memory means for storing information to be affixed to said article when said removable memory means is provided in association with said article.

19. A manufactured article recycling system according to claim 1,

characterized in that said system further comprises an equipment control unit for controlling facilities for executing the recycle processing on the basis of the result of decision made by said recycle decision means.

20. A manufactured article recycling system comprising a manufactured article manufactured with a reuse method thereof being taken into consideration and a recycle processing deciding apparatus for deciding a recycle processing for realizing said reuse method,

characterized in that said manufactured article includes memory means for storing as information affixed to said manufactured article information concerning at least name of the article, manufacturer name of the article, model name of the article, manufactured date, manufacturing number and component parts of the article, and output means for outputting information affixed to said manufactured article and stored in said memory means;

and

that said recycle processing deciding apparatus includes connecting means connected to said article for reading the information affixed to said article from said output means;

storage means for storing a database of information for reuse of said article, said information bearing correspondence to the information affixed to said article;

recycle decision means for deciding said recycle processing for said article by referencing said information for the reuse of said article contained in said database stored in said storage means on a basis of the information affixed to the article and read through said connecting means; and

output means for outputting a result of a decision made by said recycle decision means for said article.

21. A manufactured article recycling system comprising a manufactured article manufactured with a reuse method thereof being taken into consideration and a recycle processing deciding apparatus for deciding a recycle processing for realizing said reuse method,

characterized in that said manufactured article includes memory means for storing as information affixed to said manufactured article information concerning at least name of the article, manufacturer name of the article, model name of the article, manufactured date, manufacturing number and component parts of the article and radio transmitter means for outputting by wireless the information affixed to said manufactured article and stored in said memory means;

and

that said recycle processing deciding apparatus includes radio receiver means for receiving by wireless the information affixed to said article as sent out by said radio transmitter means;

storage means for storing a database of information for reuse of said article, said information bearing correspondence to the information affixed to said article;

recycle decision means for deciding said recycle processing for said article by referencing said information for the reuse of said article contained in said database stored in said storage means on a basis of the information affixed to the article and received through said radio receiver means; and

output means for outputting a result of a decision made by said recycle decision means for said article.

22. A manufactured article recycling system comprising a manufactured article manufactured with a reuse method thereof being taken into consideration and a recycle processing deciding apparatus for deciding a recycle processing for realizing said reuse method,

characterized in that said manufactured article includes bar code means for indicating information affixed to said manufactured article in the form of a bar code, said information containing at least name of the article, manufacturer name of the article, model name of the article, manufactured date, manufacturing number and component parts of the article;

and

that said recycle processing deciding apparatus includes bar code reading means for reading said bar code;

storage means for storing a database of information for reuse of said article, said information bearing correspondence to the information affixed to said article;

recycle decision means for deciding said recycle processing for said article by referencing said information for the reuse of said article contained in said database stored in said storage means on a basis of the information affixed to the article and corresponding to the bar code inputted through said bar code reading means; and

output means for outputting a result of a decision made by said recycle decision means for said article.

23. A manufactured article recycling system comprising a manufactured article manufactured with a reuse method thereof being taken into consideration and a recycle processing deciding apparatus for deciding a recycle processing for realizing said reuse method,

characterized in that said manufactured article includes removable memory means for storing as information affixed to said manufactured article information concerning at least name of the article, manufacturer name of the article, model name of the article;

and

that said recycle processing deciding apparatus includes driving means for driving said removable memory means for thereby reading the information affixed to said article from said removable memory means;

storage means for storing a database of information for reuse of said article, said information bearing correspondence to the information affixed to said article;

recycle decision means for deciding said recycle processing for said article by referencing said information for the reuse of said article contained in said database stored in said storage means on a basis of the information affixed to the article and read out from said removable memory means driven by said driving means; and

output means for outputting a result of a decision made by said recycle decision means for said article.

24. An article manufactured with a reuse method thereof being taken into consideration, said article including:

memory means for storing as information affixed to said article at least information concerning at least one of a name of said article, manufacturer name of said article, model name of said article, manufactured date and manufacturing number;

output means for outputting information affixed to the article and stored in said memory means,

times counting means for counting a number of times a power supply to said article is turned on to supply power to said article; and

temporal duration counting means for counting a temporal duration of the supply of power from a time point at which said power supply is turned on to a time point at which said power supply is turned off;

wherein said memory means stores as use history information said number of times counted by said times counting means and said temporal duration of the supply of power counted by said temporal duration counting means.

25. An article manufactured with a reuse method thereof being taken into consideration, said article including:

memory means for storing as information affixed to said article at least information concerning at least one of a name of said article, manufacturer name of said article, model name of said article, manufactured date and manufacturing number;

output means for outputting information affixed to the article and stored in said memory means;

temperature measuring means for measuring a temperature of said article in a state in which a power supply is on;

storage means for storing an upper limit value of a temperature specified for said article; and

detecting means for detecting that the temperature of said article measured by said temperature measuring means exceeds the upper limit value of the specified temperature stored in said storage means;

a temporal duration measuring means responding to the detection output of said detecting means to thereby measure a temporal duration for which the temperature of the article measured by said temperature measuring means continues to exceed the upper limit value of the specified temperature stored in said storage means; and

a temporal duration counting means for counting a number of times said temporal duration measuring means measures the temporal duration for which the upper limit is exceeded;

wherein said memory means further stores in response to the detection output of said detecting means the temporal duration for which the upper limit value is exceeded and the count of said temporal duration counting means.

26. An article according to claim 25, further including:

times counting means for counting a number of times a power supply to said article is turned on to supply power to said article; and

temporal duration counting means for counting a temporal duration of the supply of power from a time point at which said power supply is turned on to a time point at which said power supply is turned off;

wherein said memory means stores as use history information the number of times counted by said times counting means and said temporal duration of the supply of power counted by said temporal duration counting means.

27. A manufactured article recycle system comprising:

first storage means for storing first information relating to a plurality of parts combinable to form different articles;

second storage means for storing second information relating to a plurality of recycle processes corresponding to properties of said parts;

input means for inputting third information relating to said articles;

computation means for extracting the first information relating to a part of an article inputted by an input means from said first storage means, and extracting said second information relating to said part to be extracted from the first storage means from said second storage means; and

output means for outputting said second information extracted by said computation means.

28. A manufactured article recycle system according to claim 27, wherein one of said properties of said parts is information relating to at least one of a harmful material, a hazardous material and multi-material contained in said part.

29. A manufactured article recycle system according to claim 27, wherein one of said recycle processes is a special process including a shredding separating processing of said article.

30. A manufactured article recycle system according to claim 27, wherein said first and second storage means are included in a same storage means.

31. A manufactured article recycle system comprising:

a first storage unit which stores first information relating to a plurality of parts combinable to form different articles;

a second storage unit which stores second information relating to a plurality of recycle processes corresponding to properties of said parts;

an input unit for inputting third information relating to said articles;

an extractor which extracts the first information from said first storage unit relating to a part of an article inputted by said input unit and which extracts second information from said second storage unit relating to said part in accordance with the first information extracted from first storage unit relating to said part; and

an output unit which outputs the second information extracted by the extractor.

32. A manufactured article recycle system according to claim 31, where one of the properties of said part is information relating to at least one of a harmful material, a hazardous material and a multi-material contained in said part.

33. A manufactured article recycle system according to claim 31, wherein one of said plurality of recycle processes is a disassembling processing for disassembling said article to individual component parts.

34. A manufactured article recycle system according to claim 31, wherein said first and second storage means are included in a same storage means.