Salvaging: Planes
Starting off
Once they have set up their new home for the next weeks or months. The salvagers will work on other planes.Planes
As they have already taken some of the seating out of the two planes to make room for people to sleep. These seats will be stripped down while other planes are opened up and have all their seats removed. Once the seats are removed in planes, that the workers are not sleeping in the carpets are removed, revealing the floors. Next to come off, in the inside of the plane is the overhead compartments. These will be opened to ensure that there is nothing left, in the overhead lockers, or at least nothing of importance. As the overhead lockers are made of Aluminium, the lockers will be turned into scrap to be melted down.Electronic Instruments
The next thing to be removed is the electronic instruments that would be used in flying the plane, which are kept in the pilot’s cabin that would generally be used to fly the plane correctly. The black box is found at the back of the plane [1] and the appliances on the plane. Unlike what its name suggests, the black box is, in fact, orange in colour [1]. The components that are removed are then dismantled within the plane and sorted into plastics, metals and electronics. The electronics will be refined further by taking any exposed copper off the circuit boards. Any major components are removed. What remains on the board is broken down to be chemically separated. For major components such as transformers, the copper coils are cut to ensure that it is not copper-plated Aluminium, in which case, the coils are then put into the Aluminium section.Interior of the Plane
The inside is stripped of its walls leaving the Aluminium walls intact. If they come across any copper lines, then this starts another process. This process is to break down the copper cable into wire similarly, to what workhouse workers would do, with a rope called oakum-picking [3][4]. Once the copper wires have been extracted they are then wound. For thick wires around the hand to make bundles of copper. For much thinner wires, they are crushed between the hands to make fist-sized bundles. These are melted down to make ingots of copper weighing 1kg (35.27 oz).Engines
The engines are removed and are broken down further. The metal is broken down into scraps. This scrap metal goes through a similar electrochemical separation process but to separate the Nickel, Titanium and Aluminium [9][10]. These metals are then turned into ingots, each metal type weighing a kilogram (35.27 oz).Wings and Stabilisers
The next thing to go is the wings and stabilisers [8] of the plane. The wings are made of an alloy of Aluminium and Zinc [5]. Back in the day, this was to make an alloy that was stronger than steel but lighter [6][7]. The alloy is melted down into plates similar to the Electrochemical Separation process except for two reasons. Firstly the metals aren’t the same and secondly, the first and only plate is made of Zinc. This is used to separate the Zinc from the Aluminium. After this, the metals are melted down into ingots. For Aluminium it is melted into ingots of 1kg (35.27 oz) and Zinc its 100g (3.53 oz).Landing Gear
What is left is the cyclical part of the plane or the fuselage. The windows are removed from the plane. At this point, and unfortunately, the toilets of the plane are removed. The floor is removed, any metals are removed not including the tanks for the toilet “waste”. The plane is then pulled over and the landing gear is removed. This can be made out of steel and Titanium. These alloys go through the same process as Aluminium and Zinc. This time it is to separate the steel from the Titanium. The Titanium and Aluminium, are melted down to 1kg (35.27oz) ingots.Tanks
What is then left is the tanks of the plane that would be the fuel tanks, fresh water tanks and the wastes from the plane’s toilets and the fuselage of the plane. The tanks are removed and the fuselage is broken down into scrap metal and shares the same fate as the wings. The contents of the tanks are thoughtfully disposed of, and cleaned since they are stainless steel they are melted down to 1 kg ingots (35.27 oz). All that is left of the plane is the windows of the plane. Unfortunately the plastic from instruments and from the knobs from in-flight entertainment systems. The plastic is most likely to be burned as to not destroy the landscape. That landfills would create.Electrochemical Separation
In the Electrochemical separation process, a mixture of Nitric acid and hydrochloric acid are used in a large glass vessel and the broken up circuit boards are then added. This makes a reaction which since they are outside in the processing the hardware area the fumes can be carried away. What results is golden dust with the acid. This is filtered off and dried and then smelted into a large sheet of metal measuring 10.16cm by 30.48cm and 1 cm thick (4” by 1’ by 0.39”). Since this metal sheet has the metals copper, silver and gold. These are then refined. The plate of metal that needs to be refined is put into a bath of water for electrolysis and given a positive charge [2]. Since they are in a windy place as airports tend to be in the UK, they use portable wind turbines to generate the electricity they need for the process. Firstly on the negative plate copper is used so that the copper on the positive plate will be attracted to the negative one [2]. Secondly, the negative plate is removed, the positive plate now only has silver and gold. In the next bath, a steel plate is used to attract silver [2]. The silver gets pulled to the steel in crystal form. After this bath, the positive plate contains nothing but gold so it is melted down to make ingots weighing 100g (3.53oz). The silver is scraped off the steel plate and melted down into 500g (17.64oz) ingots. The copper is machined off, so that the excess that was machined off is melted down to make 1kg (35.27oz) ingots.Article Contents
References
[1]The colour and the location of the Black box in a plane[2]Youtube video on Computer Recycling
[3]Name of a Job in the Workhouse
[4]Youtube Video on the Worst Jobs In History - 1x06 - VictorianName of a Job in the Workhouse
[5]Information on the elements of the alloy used in plane parts
[6]Youtube video on Making Zinc Metal by Electrolysis
[7]Information on how to separating Zinc from Aluminium in an alloy
[8]Terminology of Plane Parts
[9]Youtube video on how Aircraft Engines are made
[10]A website detailing what metals aircraft engines are made out of
Acknowledgements
AmelieIS
AmelieIS’s World Anvil Author Page
Dazzlikat
Dazzlikat's World Anvil Author Page
WriterGreg
Twitch
WriterGreg’s Website
WriterGreg First Draft - Twitch VOD Replay Channel
WriterGreg - Primary Channel
WriterGreg’s World Anvil Author Page
