Recycling high temperature insulation pieces

[socketcap]

Greetings fellow pyros's,

I recently got a job as a CNC waterjet operator for a company that makes parts out of high temperature insulations, blankets, bricks for blast furnaces and kilns etc. and in my daily routine I have to water jet cut many types of high temperature insulation boards, bricks and blankets and refractories.

Part of the process is to be as conservative as possible to nest parts in such a way that there is little waste when making parts.

However because this company does a lot of parts there is a fair amount of waste that is just too small to recycle into future parts and the company has allowed me to take home the various shapes of 2300f to 3092f waterjet drops.

My question is: has anyone here ever had the opportunity to acquire such valuable industrial waste? and figure out how to reprocess it ( like in a roller mill to grind up or break down the pieces into small fibers ) and figure out how to make insulation boards even if there not as perfect as a OEM company can make? or even just use the loose fibers packed between firebrick cores and sheet metal skins?

At roughly 100.00 to 200.00 dollars per board foot (12"x12"x1") for many of these very high temperature insulation products its absolutely worth it to me to find a way to recycle this waste into something useful to feed my fun hobby.


Sincerely,

Socketcap

[martyn]

Sounds like a fascinating job, I am interested to know exactly what these $200 12” squares are made from ?
In fact I am interested in any more info you have about the products you work with.
I am guessing you are referring to ceramic fibre board?

[Vortex]

I've made small test pieces from the sawdust of vermiculite board, IFB, CFB, firebrick, perlite, local clay and various combinations of those mixed 4-1 with calcium aluminate cement and/or furnace cement. All survived burns of 850C-900C. I would like to try it with just waterglass but haven't been able to get hold of any yet.

What happens to all the little bits the waterjet cuts out, do they just go down the drain or is there a filter system to collect them? They'd be the perfect size for a test mix.

[socketcap]

After reading the replies to my questions I looked at work today to discover the ingredients to the various insulating refractories there and what I most found was brand names and product names, the highest temperature insulations had these product names "KVS144,KVS164,KVS174,KVS184" these are made by a company called Rath group from Germany and I copied and pasted some of the info from their site here :

Mar. 18, 2015 – The Rath Group is proud to announce the introduction of Prioform® vacuum-formed products. The Rath Group is the leader in high-temperature polycrystalline fiber. Prioform joins Rath’s extensive line of high-temperature materials manufactured using polycrystalline fiber. Prioform® is Refractory Ceramic Fiber-free vacuum-formed material available in any shape from cylinders to boards. Prioform® is classified to 1400°C with a maximum application temperature to 1300°C. It has high long-term stability with low long-term shrinkage, high chemical stability, and most importantly it is free of refractory ceramic fiber. It has been designed for insulation in industrial furnaces, laboratory kilns, household appliances, and thermal analytical equipment.
Prioform® is available with organic as Prioform PVS 141 and pre-fired non-organic Prioform® PVS 144. It joins the RathAltraform® family of materials including KVS 164/302 for temperatures up to 1600°C, Altraform® KVS 174/400 for temperatures up to 1700°C and Altraform® KVS 184/400 for temperatures up to 1800°C. Prioform® PVS 144 provides the answer to bio-soluble fibers that fail at elevated temperatures.

The majority of the insulation that is cut is in this pdf> www.unifrax.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/C-1424.pdf "Unifrax Fiberfrax Duraboard" in the 2300f and 2600f temp range

[socketcap]

The CNC water jet machine has 2 pressures used to cut materials the "low" pressure is 29,000 PSI and is straight water only. "High" pressure is 58,000 PSI and is used with fine Garnet introduced into the water stream just before exiting the nozzle.

The tank of a CNC waterjet machine is not accessible normally, the tank at our company is about 20 feet long and 10 feet wide and about 36" deep and the particles driven out of a cut of any material is likely microscopic.

A new water jet machine has the potential to cut through its own water tank if left to run in one spot, because there is no mud/garnet layer in the bottom of the tank to dissipate the 29,000 to 58,000 PSI and most manufacturers recommend that a machine is NOT cleaned out very often because of that. So in your question about recovering bits cut out it would not be possible really, once the material is cut out regardless of soft or hard materials it is blasted straight down into the 12" or more mud layer in the bottom of the machines tank. The diameter of the water jet exiting the nozzle is .013"

[socketcap]

The majority of the waste product I have is the Duraboard LD which is has a rating of 2300F, I have done some reading and it seems what companies use to chop it up is some form of a "roller Mill", I hope to maybe make one if possible

[Vortex]

I have a piece of that Fiberfrax Duraboard CFB. It's very easily abraded, I had to wrap it in clingwrap while I was building the stove to protect it.

[socketcap]

I am hoping that the property of being easily abraded will contribute to being easily chopped up with some kind of mechanical process and then I was hoping to reform it with some kind of light high temp cement as a binder

[Vortex]

A standard food blender would probably manage that stuff if it's cut up into small chunks. Make sure to wear breathing protection, that dust is really nasty.