Japanese Researchers Devise System to Smash Asbestos
A group of Japanese researchers have announced that they’ve invented what they claim is the world’s first device to smash asbestos into harmless pieces.
According to an article in Japan Today and several other Japanese newspapers, the airtight device was developed by an “academic and industrial alliance†and measures 3.8 by 3.8 by 4 meters (12.5 by 12.5 by 13 feet). The device contains 100 iron balls each 10 centimeters (about 4 inches) across and weighing 4 kilograms (about 9 pounds) each.
According to the announcement, when asbestos is put into the container, the iron balls spin around at high speed and smash the acicular crystals of the material into de-crystallized pieces.
The research group, made up of members of the Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advance Materials at Tohoku University, the Radical Planet Research Institute and Sumitomo Heavy Industries Techno-Fort Co., says the process is simpler and less costly than currently used methods.
There was no word as to whether the new method will be tested in Japan or in any other countries with asbestos concerns.
