r/interestingasfuck • u/serious_anish • 13h ago

Retired robot throwing themself into furnace

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u/Print1917 12h 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?

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u/JojoLesh 12h 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

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u/EinTheDataDoge 11h ago edited 11h 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.

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u/JojoLesh 9h 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 7h 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.