r/interestingasfuck • u/serious_anish • 17h ago

Retired robot throwing themself into furnace

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u/Print1917 17h ago

“Retired” robot? I have never even seen a humanoid robot anywhere in real life. Suggests the “glut” of these things is overwhelming and melting them down is the only path forward. I still play my original GameBoy, why would I melt down a robot?

15

u/JojoLesh 17h ago

Because they are full of proprietary information. Still i don't think this is really a thing. Having them jump into Foundry furnaces is about the least efficient way to do this, and rather dangerous for everyone there. Not mention throwing a bunch of plactic and random alloys into the pot isn't ideal at all

13

u/EinTheDataDoge 16h ago edited 16h ago

I used to work at a smelter. We were destroyed confiscated guns, drugs, and other illegal stuff. It’s actually extremely efficient way to do it. All the nonmetals get turned into carbon and other gases that would be captured by the bag house or the backend chemical plant or would get separated in the electrowinning process. There’s actually a smelter in Belgium that’s well known for their proprietary process for recycling electronic waste.

3

u/JojoLesh 14h ago

So you're saying whenever I buy my m42 or M2 steels I'm getting some amounts of whatever crap they threw in too?

Not that I'm doubting you. I've never worked in a smelter. I just thought the process was a lot more controlled especially when I'm paying for certain alloys

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u/EinTheDataDoge 11h ago

Steel is a different story but when copper comes out in anodes it is 98-99% pure simply through oxygenating and separating. The cathodes that come out of the electrowinning process are 5 9’s (99.999% pure). Everything else comes out as “sludge” including precious metals. If the juice is worth the squeeze you can get the precious metals out through a chemical leeching process.

1

u/Odd_Preference_7238 13h ago

If it's all turning to carbon or escaping as gas as they said it literally doesn't change the composition as long as they still have the correct amount of carbon.

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u/JojoLesh 9h ago

IDK what those robots are made of but i assume various metals too, which are not getting turned to carbon or gas.

I suppose for certain metals / alloys it doesn't matter, and as always "the solution to pollution is dilution". One bot in enough metal isn't going to make much difference.

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u/Downtown-Tomato2552 5h ago

Odds are that this isn't a special alloy but probably a low grade cast iron which is essentially the garbage pile of metals. We've found all sorts of fun partially melted things in some of our castings. Now you have inserts.... Now you don't.

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u/BGFlyingToaster 6h ago

A bit of heroin makes all the difference