Simulation of printed circuit boards recycling process

¹ Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Faculty of Applied Informatics, nam. T.G.Masaryka 5555, 760 01 Zlín, Czech Republic
² Technical University of Košice, FMT, Bayerova 1, 08001 Prešov, Slovakia
³ VSB – Technical University of Ostrava, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, 17.listopadu 15, 708 33 Ostrava, Czech Republic

^* Corresponding author: janacova@utb.cz

Abstract

This paper focused on the modeling of ecological PCB. Due to the high increase in the production of electronic waste, which contains a whole range of usable components, it is necessary to recycle it. About the study of the issue, we have proposed a solution for the separation of conductive paths from plastic and taking into account the legislative approaches and taking into account the existing methods of PCB separation, the composition, and production of PCBs and also the binders used in PCBs. We used the knowledge of process engineering to design a mathematical description of temperature fields in PCB and stress. To a great extent, we have devoted ourselves to the simulation experiments of PCB heating and cooling and the determination of temperature fields and stress due to temperature, cyclic mechanical stresses due to temperature. The simulation is performed in the Pro/ENGINEER and COMSOL Multiphysics® software environments, because of the possibility of solving multi-physical problems. Outputs from computer simulations are the initial stage for designing an eco-friendly way of recycling PCBs. In the future, we will focus on the more difficult issue of recycling multilayer PCBs. The development of new criteria for PCB recycling has opened new possibilities of treatment for used materials.