Fragmentation of composite materials by electrothermally generated pressure pulses

Legal constrains demand increased recycling of refuse materials in Germany. Improved techniques are required. This paper introduces a new process which uses electrothermally generated pressure pulses for the fragmentation and separation of materials. The technique and the process equipment are described together with selected applications. This work was partly founded by the German Ministry of Research and Development. A flexible fragmentation test bed based on a repetitive capacitor bank was designed and built. A large variety of tests on different materials have been conducted so far.