Načrtovanje avtomatizirane linije za razstavljanje sinhronskih motorjev s trajnimi magneti

In this master's thesis, the process of designing an automated line for dismantling motors with permanent magnets from electric vehicles is presented. The focus was on developing a methodology for effective motor dismantling and magnet extraction from the rotor. In the first part of the thesis, the need for motor recycling is defined through the need to recover rare earth elements as critical materials. In this part, the concepts of circular economy and urban mining are introduced as the main concepts for the sustainable use of these elements in the European Union. In the second part of the thesis, manual disassembly of the motor from the Nissan Leaf electric vehicle was carried out, and the potential of recovery of rare earth elements from the rotor of that motor was analyzed through the obtained magnets. The dismantling process was approached systematically in order to define each necessary step, its complexity, and execution time. It was concluded that the demagnetization step of the rotor is necessary and that this step is the most demanding in terms of time and invested electrical energy. This analysis served as the basis for the design of the automated line. In the third part of the thesis, the requirements for an automated line are presented, derived from the knowledge gained during manual dismantling. The concept of the automated line was defined, and a digital model was created in the Siemens Plant Simulation software. On the digital model, two simulations were performed to validate the selection of the demagnetization station in the automated line.