Aluminium Scraps Characterisation by Digital Imagig Techniques

Digital imaging techniques according to the increasing computer power open new dramatic perspectives in terms of their possible application in new industrial fields. One of the field where such a technique can be profitably applied is that of industrial waste recycling. In this perspective this paper analyse several procedures, all digital imaging based, autonomously developed, applied and tested for the characterisation of aluminium scraps resulting from the demolition of cars. Such products present different characteristics according to their composition (aluminium alloys) and their previous utilisation (different car components). These differences are enhanced by comminution process and, in some cases, strongly influences the characteristics of the resulting “particles”. In this paper the possibilities offered by the adoption of imag-ing approach to set up classification-recognition procedures, starting from the evalua-tion of aluminium scarps pictorial characteristics, are analysed and critically evalu-ated. All the tests have been performed on aluminium samples as they results after comminution in an industrial car demolition plant.