Although the metal impregnated carbon used for pantograph contact strips and the copper-based sintered alloy used for brake lining contain sufficient amounts of copper to be recycled, they have been discarded as industrial waste after use. The authors have studied practical recycling processes of copper resources contained in these contact strip and brake lining materials by laboratory and field experiments and confirmed that the copper can be separated and recovered almost perfectly by fusing with raw materials in the converter of copper refinery. It is also confirmed, however, that the steel-made attachment holder of brake lining has to be detached before applying this method.

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