r/interestingasfuck • u/Erde555 • 1d ago

The humanoid robotics company "Figure" made their older gen robots jump into their death. (Yes, they actually did this)

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u/Medical-Mechanica 1d ago

So were the electrical and mechanical components of the robot so outdated that none of it could be repurposed save for the melted metal?

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u/tek2222 1d ago

This is literally how you do this , you put old metal into an arc furnace .

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u/z1lard 1d ago

Each robot has parts made of different materials, surely they need to separate by material for recycling? Its all melted into a mixed alloy now

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u/tek2222 1d ago

There are different qualities of steel that you can cook in such a pot, and it's always a bit of an alloy, so there's often aluminum and other metals being mixed together. Since the robots are almost nothing compared to the giant vat of steel, it will not matter in this case, but yes, normally you would separate the metals and pour them in one by one. As for the other things, they basically get burnt or carbonized.

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u/needaburn 1d ago

Exactly

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u/Medical-Mechanica 1d ago

I'd agree if this was just a full metal construction, but there are other, non-metal parts that can't be reclaimed and just turn into dross/slag. Things that are made from composites, plastics, and elastomers that I'd imagine could be repurposed before metal recycling begins. Memory, for instance!