Laboratory

SMART's 'Sustainable Manufacturing Laboratory' is a specially designed space located in the Wolfson School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at Loughborough University. It is used by the team to support our projects on sustainable product and process design, energy and water efficient manufacturing technologies, and remanufacturing and recycling technologies.

The lab is divided into four key zones dedicated to different types of work which target specific areas of our research:

Sustainable Design Hub

The 'Sustainable Design Hub' is used for manual disassembly and design analysis of various products. This provides access to range of software (e.g. LCA, material selector, CAPP, CAD, etc.) and hardware (energy monitoring, a range of mechanical and digital sensing technologies, optical cameras, etc.) tools to aid with improving the design sustainability of products and/or production processes used to manufacture them.

Sustainable Engineering Hub

The 'Sustainable Engineering Hub' is used to review and analyse the environmental performance of manufacturing processes. This provides access to a range of monitoring, control and measurement technologies for assessing resource (material, energy and water) efficiency of a process, and for investigating a range of proactive and reactive approaches to improve sustainability performance of manufacturing processes.

Automated Disassembly and Remanufacturing Cell

The 'Automated Disassembly and Remanufacturing Cell' is used to explore increased automation in disassembly and recovery of strategically important materials (SIMs) and/or components from products. This utilises Robotic technologies to improve concentration of SIMs prior to fragmentation and to increase recovery rate for a range of valuable waste materials such as precious metals and rare earth materials.

Waste Sorting and Separation Line

The 'Waste Sorting and Separation Line' is used for intelligent sorting of waste products prior to fragmentation, and separation of various waste material streams after fragmentation. This provides access to various sorting technologies using intelligent sensors, as well as mechanical, electromagnetic, and density-based separators for liberation of various materials from waste streams.

Available Equipment

6-Axis Robot Arm

A Stäubli 6-axis RX160, equipped with a multi-tool changer to utilise a variety of tools including a claw gripper, vacuum gripper, circular saw and drill.
Conveyor Systems

Conveyors Direct, model CD120 conveyor system, used in a variety of sorting procedures including biopolymer identification and removal from waste streams.
3D Camera

A 'Sick RANGER-E55434' 3D and RGB-colour camera with multi-scan ability at up to 11 kHz utilised for material and component identification in a number of research projects.
Infra-Red Camera

A 'Gobi-640-GigE' high resolution uncooled thermal camera, currently being used in projects including infrared identification of polymers and infrared monitoring of manufacturing processes.
Large Granulator

Large 'GSL180/430' Granulation Machine from Zerma Machinery & Recycling Technology Co. Ltd, used to granulate/shred post-sorted/treated shoes into constituent materials (leather, rubber and textiles) for post-fragmentation separation.
Air Pulse (Cascade) Separator

Custom made recycling equipment, designed to utilise an air cascade or air pulse system for post-fragmentation separation of lighter textile fines and other fine leather and foam residues from the main material stream of rubber, leather and textile materials.
Vibrating Air Table Separator

Custom made equipment designed to liberate rubber granulates from the PU and EVA based foams from sports shoes, or to separate the rubber from leather for leather based shoes.
Dense Media Separator

Custom built for targeted separation of shoe textile, leather and rubber materials.
Metal Separator

S+S (separation and sorting technology GmbH) Rapid Vario-FS 150 PM Metal separator, used during post fragmentation separation processes on a number of projects including automotive, WEEE and shoe recycling.
Twin Bag Extractor

Large Axminster Plus Model 810389 Twin Bag Mobile Dust Extractor, used as a 'blower' to move material from the granulator and into the air cascade separator, it then aids in separation of textile fines during the air cascade.
Small Extrator

SIP-group 01952 - 1hp Dust Collector, used as a 'mini-blower' to extract remaining fines from leather and textile materials during final separation stages.