Product comprising recycled aluminum alloy wheel fragments and an alloying supplement, and methods and system for producing same

Abstract

A product comprising recycled metal fragments and an alloying supplement, and methods and system for producing same. In some examples, the product comprises a container, shot blasted pieces of aluminum alloy wheels and an alloying supplement. In some examples, the product also comprises an indication on the container of a composition estimate of the combined shot blasted pieces and alloying supplement. In other examples, the indication and/or the alloying supplement may be provided by a company in the business of providing alloying supplements.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A system for providing an aluminum alloy product, the system comprising:
 an aluminum alloy wheel transfer mechanism for providing a feed of a plurality of aluminum alloy wheels;   an aluminum alloy wheel processor for fragmenting the plurality of aluminum alloy wheels into a plurality of fragments, and then cleaning the plurality of fragments to provide a plurality of cleaned fragments;   a non-transient electronically readable memory for storing, for each target alloy in a plurality of target alloys, a plurality of element ranges comprising an element range for each element in the plurality of elements;   a composition analyzer for measuring a composition of at least some of the plurality of cleaned fragments to determine a plurality of composition measurements;   a weigh scale for determining a mass of the plurality of cleaned fragments;   a computer processor in electronic communication with the non-transient electronically readable memory, the weigh scale, and the composition analyzer, for, in operation,
 receiving the plurality of composition measurements from the composition analyzer and determining an aggregate composition estimate for the plurality of cleaned fragments, the aggregate composition estimate comprising a plurality of element concentration estimates comprising an element concentration estimate for each element in the plurality of elements; 
 based at least partly on the aggregate composition estimate, selecting a selected target alloy, the selected target alloy having a plurality of element ranges comprising an element range for each element in the plurality of elements; 
 determining a discrepancy estimate by determining, for each element in the plurality of elements, a discrepancy between the element concentration estimate for that element and the element range of the selected target alloy for that element, wherein the discrepancy between the element concentration estimate for at least one element and the element range of the selected target alloy for that element is non-zero; 
 based on the discrepancy estimate and the estimated mass of the plurality of shot blasted pieces, determining an alloying supplement having a supplement mass and composition for including with the plurality of shot blasted pieces to change the aggregate composition estimate to an adjusted composition estimate wherein, for each element in the plurality of elements, the element concentration estimate of the adjusted composition estimate for that element is within the element range of the target alloy for that element. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system as defined in  claim 1 , wherein, in operation, the computer processor further determines a comparison of the aggregate composition estimate to each target alloy in a plurality of target alloys, each target alloy in the plurality of target alloys having a plurality of element ranges comprising an element range for each element in the plurality of elements, wherein selecting the selected target alloy is further based on the comparison. 
     
     
         3 . The system as defined in  claim 2 , wherein determining the comparison comprises, for each target alloy in the plurality of target alloys, determining an alloy-specific discrepancy estimate for that target alloy comprising, for each element in the plurality of elements, a discrepancy between the element concentration estimate for that element and the element range of that target alloy for that element, wherein
 the discrepancy between the element concentration estimate for at least one element and the element range of that target alloy for that element is non-zero, and   the discrepancy estimate is the alloy-specific discrepancy estimate for the selected target alloy.   
     
     
         4 . The system as defined in  claim 3  wherein the non-transient electronically readable memory stores
 value information including, for each target alloy in a plurality of target alloys, a value per unit mass of that target alloy; and 
 cost information including, for at least some elements in the plurality of elements, a cost per unit mass of that element included in the alloying substance; 
 wherein, in operation, the computer processor selects the selected target alloy based at least partly on the discrepancy estimate, and the value information and cost information received from the non-transient electronically readable memory. 
 
     
     
         5 . The system as defined in  claim 1 , further comprising a user interface for communicating the selected target alloy and the supplement mass and composition of the alloying supplement to a user/operator, the user interface being in electronic communication with the computer processor.