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INNOVATIVE RECYCLING GRANT On-line Sorting of Recovered Wood Waste Using

Automated X-ray Technology

PROGRESS REPORT #6 For Work Periods Ending February 29th, 2008

Submitted by Town of Medley

(Roy Danziger, Project Manager)

ACTIVITIES COMPLETED TO DATE Project Administration

• Reporting dates are provided below for reference.

Due Dates for Town of Medley (to FDEP) Work Period Reporting Period End Date Payment Request and Progress

Report Due Date 1 (Report #5) December 31, 2007 January 15, 2008 2 (Report #6) March 30, 2008 April 15, 2008 3 (Report #7) June 30, 2008 July 15, 2008 4 (Report #8) September 30, 2008 October 15, 2008 5 (Report #9) December 30, 2008 January 15, 2009

February 15, 2009 (Final)

Due Dates for U.Miami (to Town of Medley) Work Period Reporting Period End Date Payment Request and Progress

Report Due Date 1 (Report #5) November 30, 2006 December 31, 2007 2 (Report #6) February 28, 2008 March 30, 2008 3 (Report #7) May 31, 2008 June 30, 2008 4 (Report #8) August 31, 2008 September 30, 2008 5 (Report #9) November 30, 2008 December 30, 2008 – FINAL

REPORT DUE DATE

• A new website for the project was created and launched on the University of Miami server; http://www.eng.miami.edu/~hmsolo/medley2/. The website includes all the progress reports up to date, all the contact information of the involved institutes and companies with their links, in addition to all safety manuals for the field work and XRF units.

• Yang Deng left the University of Miami and a new post-doctoral associate, Dr. Guoqing He has been recruited and assigned to work on the project.

• University of Miami team started to prepare for the onsite research work by ordering some necessary work tools such as helmets and steel toed shoes.

• The research team of the University of Florida is kept informed about the progress of the work and the anticipated dates to start the onsite research work.

• The air compressor specified by Austin AI has been ordered by the University of Miami and has already been delivered to Florida Wood Recycling.

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• Erin/Premier Tech was contacted by Harvey Schneider and Austin AI (the XRF supplier) for the design and delivery of the conveyance system, with a potential collaborative agreement. However, this agreement fell through as the price provided by Erin/Premier Tech for the conveyor was too high.

• Austin AI is currently working with Endura-veyor and a quote will be provided very soon for the conveyor, at which point an order will likely be placed with this company.

• Austin AI has developed a project timeline. They anticipate delivery of the XRF unit along with the conveyors for March 2008. There was a two-week delay from the updated schedule provided by Austin AI. The reason for this delay is because the X-ray tube delivered to Austin AI had the wrong X-ray target. The 2-week delay is necessary in order to correct this error.

• According to Austin AI (as of March 7, 2007), the fabrication of the new conveyor (by Endura-veyor) should be completed by the end of March.

• Testing of the XRF unit and the diverting system is planned at Austin AI facility for this month, March 2008.

Design of XRF Sorting System • A safety manual has been prepared for the hand-held XRF units and for the on-line XRF

units. • The research team is currently working with Austin AI in refining the design. Figures 1

and 2 show the latest design that will be submitted to Endura-veyor for a quote. • Up to now, the following issues have been agreed on:

- An air compressor is to be used for actuating the diverter arm, the air compressor has been ordered by the University of Miami from Arle Compressor Systems Corp. ($6735) and the compressor has already been received by Florida Wood Recycling.

- An agreement has been reached to purchase a motorized conveyor for moving the wood upon the XRF detection instead of gravity or vibratory options.

- A separate electric panel will be used for the operation and control of the XRF unit. Research Meetings

• Helena Solo-Gabriele, Paul Lopez Collado, and Harvey Schneider met at Florida Wood Recycling on June 29th, 2006 to collect measurements and photos of the existing sorting system.

• A follow up conference call was held (Harvey Schneider, Helena Solo-Gabriele, Paul Lopez Collado) with Austin AI (Rick Comtois, Julie Villesces, and John Schindler) on July 21, 2006 to discuss the design of the XRF unit. During this conference call, a request was made for John Schindler of Austin AI to visit Florida Wood Recycling as part of the design process.

• John Schindler of Austin AI visited Florida Wood Recycling on September 26th at which point in time Harvey Schneider provided details of the upgrades to his new picking line system. Those present at the meeting included: Helena Solo-Gabriele and Paul Lopez Collado, in addition to John Schindler and Harvey Schneider.

• A meeting was held at Florida Wood Recycling on October 24, 2006 to discuss the potential of collaborating with a group from Japan. Present at the meeting included: Dr. Toshimitsu Hata of Kyoto University - Japan, Helena Solo-Gabriele, Yang Deng, and Harvey Schneider.

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• A conference call was held on October 27, 2006 to discuss John Schindler’s conceptual design that was an outcome from his September 26th visit.

• Austin AI provided a more detailed design on January 26, 2007. Of note is that corrections were needed to this design.

• A conference call was held on March 5, 2007 to discuss the latest design from Austin AI. • Rick Comtois of Austin AI and Gary Meehan of Innov-X visited Florida Wood

Recycling on April 5, 2007. • As a result of the April 5th meeting a PO was issued to Austin AI (on May 11, 2007) on

the contingency that a new set of drawings would be prepared. These drawings were sent in early June and a follow up conference call was held on June 11th, 2007 to discuss the drawings. Some pending differences among the parties included the method of actuating the diverter (compressed air versus electric) and the use of slides, vibratory slides, or motorized conveyors to move the wood once detected by the XRF unit.

• On June 20, 2007, Helena Solo-Gabriele met with Rick Comtois owner of Austin AI, and Don Sackett, owner of Innov-X who has a licensing agreement for the on-line sorting technology provided by Austin AI. Both Rick Comtois and Don Sackett were in Miami on other business. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the status of the XRF design and to discuss the differences among the parties with respect to the conveyors and the method of actuating the diverters. The outcome of that meeting was that firmer cost estimates were needed as the initial estimates for the motorized conveyors appeared high. Helena Solo-Gabriele was to provide Rick Comtois and Don Sackett with previous cost analyses developed for on-line XRF sorting and she was to contact Harvey Schneider to obtain name of local conveyor supplier.

• A conference call was held (Harvey Schneider, Helena Solo-Gabriele, Hasan Abdel Fattah) with Austin AI (Rick Comtois, Chris MacKay, and John Schindler) on July 30, 2007 to discuss the installation of the new picking line, the compressor, the XRF unit and the motorized belt conveyor. A site visit by Helena Solo-Gabriele to Florida Wood Recycling was arranged in this meeting to be on August 9th, 2007 in order to have a look on the new picking line and to take some photos. Minutes of the meeting are attached in the Appendix.

• Helena Solo-Gabriele, Hasan Abdel Fattah, and Harvey Schneider met at Florida Wood Recycling on August 9th , 2007 to have a look on the new picking line; some photos are attached (See Figure 3).

• A conference call was held (Harvey Schneider) with Austin AI (Chris Mackay and John Schindler) on October 1st in order to discuss chute-arrangements for picking lines A and B and the process of supplying the belt conveyors and the new drawings for the system. Minutes of the meeting are attached in the Appendix.

• On site progress meeting was held on November 28th, 2007 at Florida Wood Recycling with the presence of Harvey Schneider (Florida wood recycling), Helena Solo-Gabriele, Guoqing He, Hasan Abdel Fattah (from the University of Miami), Ricky Comtois and Chris MacKay from (Austin AI), and Doug Logan (from Erin/Premiere Tech, United States) and Howard Fiedler, Francois Brodeur, Dominique Henel (from Erin/Premiere Tech, Canada). In the meeting several issues were discussed, mainly the design of conveyance system by Premier Tech, the incorporation of the sorting system with one picking line (A), the early dependence on the visual sorting when it is possible prior to the XRF detection, the use of fixed speed versus variable speed motorized conveyors. Helena Solo-Gabriele raised the question about the time frame of finalizing the design

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and starting the installation activities onsite. Austin AI and Premier Tech anticipate delivery between March to April 2008. Helena Solo-Gabriele urged the audience to consider an earlier date as of February, to give the research team more time to perform the onsite work and complete data analysis and reporting. After the meeting, Ricky Comtois (Austin AI) and the staff of Erin/Premier Tech were to discuss the future cooperation as partners in the field of online sorting of treated wood.

• Shortly after November 28th, Helena Solo-Gabriele was in contact in via email and telephone with Rick Comtois who indicated that negotiations with Premier Tech had not gone as planned. Helena Solo-Gabriele since communicated with Howard Fiedler of Premier Tech, Chris MacKay of Austin AI, Harvey Schneider of Florida Wood Recycling to evaluate the situation and attempt to obtain a consensus with respect to proceeding forward. During a 3 way call between Rick Comtois, Helena Solo-Gabriele, and Harvey Schneider on December 17th, an agreement was reached to focus on identifying other conveyor manufacturers as the costs of the conveyors quoted by Premier Tech were not within the budget of the project. Minutes of that telephone meeting are attached.

ACTIVITIES ANTICIPATED FOR NEXT REPORTING PERIOD We plan to accomplish the following during the upcoming reporting period:

- Installation and testing of the XRF system at Florida Wood Recycling Facility (FWRF) sometime in March 2008.

- Installation of the motorized conveyors, the diverting assembly, and the electrical and control panels at FWRF.

- Finalize plans for research activities on site. - Schedule research working days on site according to FWRF schedules. - The intense period of research field-work with the full-scale system is anticipated to

begin April, 2008.

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APPENDIX

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Figure 1: Overall Conveyor and XRF Integration

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Figure 2: XRF and Diverter Details

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Figure 3: Photos of New Picking Line at Florida Wood Recycling Top left: Proposed Sorted Wood Bay, Top Right: Finger Screens which Separate C&D

into small and large sizes, Bottom Left: Conveyor with Shoots along the side, Bottom Right: View of Entire Picking Line.

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Minutes of the July 30, 2007 Call Updated August 20, 2007

Participants: Rick Comtois, Austin AI (RickyCom@aol.com OR rcomtois@austinai.com) Chris MacKay, Austin AI (cmackay@austinai.com) John Schindler, Austin AI (jschindler@austinai.com) Harvey Schneider, Florida Wood Recycling (flawood@bellsouth.net) Helena Solo-Gabriele, University of Miami (hmsolo@miami.edu) Hasan Abdel Fattah, University of Miami (a.hasan@umiami.edu) The conference call began at 10:15 am and ended at 11:00 am. The following items were discussed during the call. Note action items provided in italics.

• Austin AI is currently waiting for the main conveyor details from Tom Gunter of Southeast Equipment (863-688-8960, office; 863-661-7082, cell). Follow up with Tom Gunter is needed. Once these details are received Austin AI will prepare a refined set of drawings including details with respect to how the conveyor will be attached to the new picking line. Currently the plan is to anchor the conveyor on the new picking line using hangers with cross members.

• Austin AI has suggested a change in the orientation of the XRF sensor to a downlooking angle. The new XRF unit can detect treated wood from a distance of 16 inches with a field of view that is 6 to 8 inches wide. Austin AI believes that this configuration is more practical than trying to get all of the wood to one edge of the conveyor. Austin AI envisions a couple of alternatives for the large conveyor including either simple V-shaped slides or set of U form conveyors and impact rollers which receive the dropped wood as a means of absorbing the impact of the wood while moving the wood towards the center of the conveyor. The width of the main conveyor belt will be between 48 to 54 inches wide. Discussions ensued about the potential for wood pieces to be stacked and also problems associated with wood that is nailed.

• Harvey Schneider anticipates that the new picking line will be completely installed by the first week of August. The U.Miami team will visit Florida Wood Recycling sometime in August. They will provide photos of the new picking line to the Austin AI group as they fine tune the XRF design. Helena Solo-Gabriele to also send photos of wood.

• Chris MacKay to provide Helena Solo-Gabriele with the final quote for the purchase of the air compressor. Harvey Schneider requested that the “outdoor” version of the compressor be purchased and he emphasized the need to assure that the conveyor purchased has the appropriate capacity, psi. Harvey Schneider will be “cc’d” on the quote and his input will be requested prior to placement of the order. The lead time for receipt of the compressor will be 3 to 4 weeks after the order is placed. Helena Solo-Gabriele will be placing the order for the compressor through the University of Miami subcontract.

• A separate electric panel will be provided for the XRF system.

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• A motorized belt conveyor will be used to move the untreated wood away from the XRF detector. A slide will be used for the treated wood. This slide will be inclined at 35 degrees. Austin AI indicated that if the slide does not work a viable alternative will be evaluated, including a motorized belt conveyor to move the treated wood.

• Conveyor drawings are prepared in Solid Works. An electronic copy of the drawings will be provided to the U.Miami team for possible conversion into Autocad.

• The estimated time frame for installation of the XRF unit is early to mid October. Harvey Schneider asked if the bulk of the installation could be completed on a weekend, to minimize the disruption of his operation.

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Minutes from the Oct. 1, 2007 phone call with Harvey Schneider And with Chris Mackay and John Schindler

And with Helena Solo-Gabriele and Hasan Abdel Fattah Please add comments if any. This document is two pages. - Chris expressed the concern over the potential costs in conveyors quoted with Premier

Tech. The two conveyors + freight are quoted at over $35k ($33k + estimate of $2500 for freight – install not included). This brings the projected cost to over $115k for the system - $30k over the sales price (based on a earlier, simpler system), and we need some concession to reduce costs.

- Chris requested concessions regarding the options of receiving wood from only one chute from line A, and reducing the maximum piece size to 3’x3’. By going back to the previous plans of taking 1 chute from line A and another from line B, we could shorten the main conveyor from 25’ to 13’. If we could reduce the maximum piece size to 3’x3’, this would allow us to use narrower conveyors, and with the combination of narrower and a shorter main conveyor we suspect these could reduce the cost down to the mid $20’s (k). We did not know the cost of the smaller conveyors, but we could look into it to provide a quote if it was deemed feasible.

- Harvey said he wanted the system to include both chutes from line A. Using both chutes from line A will bump up the volume of throughput. He expressed concern that the system may not be able to keep up with the wood from the chutes. If we put the system in and the throughput is low – the report would be bad.

- Harvey suggested the issue of partnership with Erin/Premier Tech, and the huge marketing potential to be made with the system. He said through talking with Premier Tech, some arrangement could potentially bring down the cost of the conveyors.

- Harvey would prefer that we use Premier Tech as a conveyor supplier. He used them because of their quality. He could have done it himself, but the quality was worth the money. He paid more to get it done right. He said it would be worth it for us to pay the extra money, and it would be “a drop in the bucket” compared to what we would gain from the system.

- Harvey said Tom Gunter didn’t want to provide the conveyors because he didn’t think it would work. Chris said that was interesting, because Tom told him that he was too busy for the job.

- Regarding the issue of reduced piece size, Harvey said that 3’ would be the smallest maximum size that could be allowed, but only if the length maximum was longer. He would prefer the system to handle longer 3’x5’ pieces over wider 4’x4’ pieces, and that the wider pieces could be put down into the second bay.

- Chris said that he would talk to Rick about the 3’x5’ option and look into the feasibility of the system handling the larger pieces.

- We discussed the piece lengths of line B. Harvey said that the largest pieces dropped from line B would mostly be 2x4’s 12” long, maybe up to 18” long.

- Harvey expressed some uncertainty regarding the layout of the system, and there was some confusion over what drawings he had received. Chris said he would email him drawings of the layout.

Action Items:

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- Chris was to give Harvey layout drawings – done - Chris was to look into the feasibility of longer pieces (5’) – in process - Harvey would talk to Premier Tech about reducing the price of conveyors.

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Summary of November 28, 2008 Meeting at Florida Wood Recycling Present: Hasan Abdel Fattah, U.Miami Francois Brodeur, Erin/Premier Tech Rick Comtois, Austin AI Howard Fiedler, Erin/Premier Tech Dominique Hanel, Erin/Premier Tech Doug Logan, Erin/Premier Tech Guoqing He, U.Miami Chris MacKay, Austin AI Harvey Schneider, Florida Wood Recycling Helena Solo-Gabriele, U.Miami The meeting began at 9:15 am. Helena Solo-Gabriele had to leave at 11:00 am. The meeting continued after 11:00 am along with a tour of Florida Wood Recycling

• The configuration of the conveyor was changed from having the sorted wood sorted towards the southern side of the picking line instead of the northern side. This new configuration would shorten the conveyors and result in cost savings.

• A sketch of the new configuration was prepared during the meeting for discussion purposes.

• Positive sorts versus negative visual sorts were discussed. H. Solo-Gabriele prefers a negative sort (i.d. the treated wood visually) whereas H. Schneider recommends a positive sort (i.d. the untreated wood visually). Experiments will be conducted both ways. Painted wood will be removed visually.  

• Motorized conveyors will be used. Fixed speed versus variable speed conveyors were discussed.  

• Helena Solo-Gabriele raised the question about the time frame of finalizing the design and starting the installation activities onsite. Austin AI and Premier Tech anticipate from March to April 2008. Helena Solo-Gabriele urged the audience to consider an earlier date as of February, to give the research team more time to perform the onsite work and complete data analysis and reporting.

• Rick Comtois and Howard Fielder were to discuss costs of the conveyors and possible

collaborative agreement after the meeting.

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 From: Solo-Gabriele, Helena M Sent: Monday, December 17, 2007 4:38 PM To: 'RickComtois'; 'RickyCom@aol.com'; FLawood@bellsouth.net Cc: Solo-Gabriele, Helena M; 'Chris Mackay' Subject: Conveyor  Rick/Harvey, Below is a summary of our conversation today. I think the conversation was very helpful. Thank you for talking with short notice.

‐ Helena ‐  1) Cost of the conveyors as quoted by Premier Tech was too high.  Austin AI will work with another 

conveyor company.  Currently Austin AI is working with Endura‐veyor (manufacturer) and Cisco Eagle (distributor).  

2) Austin AI will be responsible for the installation of the conveyor/XRF unit.  Harvey’s group will run the lines for compressed air and for electricity.  

3) Helena and Harvey would like to hold a conference call within the next few days with Chris MacKay to discuss the latest conveyor specs.  An order for the conveyor is to be placed ideally within the next week to 10 days.  

4) Rick to provide an estimated delivery date for the XRF/conveyor system.  

5) Rick to provide a date for when the demonstration system consisting of the XRF unit/diverter/jig will be operational.  Photos and/or a video will be provided of the demonstration system.  Depending upon the time frame, Helena and/or Harvey may visit Austin AI.   

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From: Florida Wood Recycling [mailto:flawood@bellsouth.net] Sent: Monday, January 07, 2008 12:39 PM To: Chris Mackay Cc: hmsolo@miami.edu Subject: eta Hello all, any news on an estimated time line for actual installation. From: Chris Mackay [mailto:cmackay@austinai.com] Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2008 4:02 PM To: 'Florida Wood Recycling' Cc: Solo-Gabriele, Helena M Subject: RE: eta Hi Harvey, I just got off the phone with Helena, who was asking how things were going. As an update, we did place the order for the conveyors last week. They are generating the engineering drawings, which we will hopefully finalize next week. Then they place the order to the manufacturer. We plan to be testing the XRF/diverting here next month, and install with the conveyors at FW mid March. I will keep you posted. Cheers, Chris

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From: Chris Mackay [mailto:cmackay@austinai.com] Sent: Thu 2/7/2008 9:01 PM To: 'Florida Wood Recycling'; Solo-Gabriele, Helena M Cc: 'Comtois, Rick' Subject: RE: eta

Hello Helena, Harvey,

Recent developments - the X-ray tube we would be using came with the wrong X-ray target (not good for this application). The tube we need is in a production run - this will push our schedule out at least a couple of weeks.

Best regards,

Chris

From: Solo-Gabriele, Helena M Sent: Friday, February 08, 2008 6:46 AM To: Chris Mackay; 'Florida Wood Recycling' Cc: 'Comtois, Rick'; Hasan Abdel Fattah (abdelfattah.hasan@gmail.com); Solo-Gabriele, Helena M Subject: RE: eta

Chris,

I had been wanting to contact you about the time frame. Thanks for keeping us informed.

Helena

From: Solo-Gabriele, Helena M [mailto:hmsolo@miami.edu] Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2008 12:40 PM To: 'Chris Mackay' Cc: 'Comtois, Rick'; Hasan Abdel Fattah (abdelfattah.hasan@gmail.com); Solo-Gabriele, Helena M; 'Florida Wood Recycling' Subject: RE: eta - Hide quoted text -

Chris…. Any updates concerning the delivery date for the conveyor? - Helena

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from Chris Mackay <cmackay@austinai.com> to "Solo-Gabriele, Helena M" <hmsolo@miami.edu>,

cc "Comtois, Rick" <rcomtois@austinai.com>, Hasan Abdel Fattah <abdelfattah.hasan@gmail.com>, Florida Wood Recycling <flawood@bellsouth.net>,

date Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 5:55 PM subject RE: eta

Hello Helena,

My last update from the manufacturer is for the conveyor fab to be completed next week. I will get back with you on the eta.

Best Regards,

Chris