🩹 Glass and sharps
caution
Where you meet it: Glass HDD platters · CRT glass · solar panel glass · vacuum tubes · bare optical fibre
What you need to know
- Glass platters shatter into razor shards. Cut-resistant gloves (A4+) and eye protection.
- Bare fibre shards are near-invisible glass splinters that embed in skin and eyes and do not show on X-ray. Use a tacky mat, gloves and eye protection; dispose of scraps in a sealed sharps container.
- Vacuum tubes implode under vacuum when broken.
The rule: NEVER blow on, wipe with bare fingers, or brush away cut optical fibre.
Components this applies to
Ceramic CCD/CIS Image Sensors
Au 0.02–0.15 g per ceramic package ≈ 1.8 g/lbAu under 0.001 g per mobile/webcam moduleBase Nd-Fe-B in VCM actuators
A
Fiber transceivers (SFP/GBIC/QSFP) ⚠
Au 0.5–1.5 g/lb (whole modules)Ag trace
A
Klystrons & Travelling-Wave Tubes
Cu ~250 g/lb (0.35–0.75 lb Cu per lb of tube)Au ~0.5–4 g per tubeAg 2–30 g per tube
C
Semiconductor Wafers & Fab Tooling
Au 0.0045 g/lb generic research-fab wafer scrapAu 7.4 g/lb for 1 µm gold-backed wafersBase quartz and SiC boats: zero metal
C
Solar cells & panels
Ag 3–8 g/lb of bare cellsBase 2–3 kg aluminium frame
C
Vacuum tubes
Au 0.1–0.5 g/lb (gold-pin types)Ag traceBase nickel plates
C
Ceramic HRC fuses (and glass fuses)
Ag 1–3 g/lbCu ~90 g/lb
D
Hard drive platters
Pt 1–2.2 mg per 3.5" platterBase 10–16 g aluminium each
D
Laser Printer Boards, Fusers & Toner Chips
Au 0.01–0.04 g per formatter board ≈ 0.045 g/lbAu 0.0005–0.002 g per toner CRUM chip ≈ 0.3–0.8 g/lb of chipsBase Fuser: no precious metal whatsoever
D
LCD Panels (ITO / CCFL vs LED)
Base Indium ~0.4–0.8 g/m² of ITO layerAu 0.01–0.08 g per panel in COF tape bumpsCu ~17 g/lb
D
Nixie Tubes, VFDs & Dekatrons
Base nickel cathodesBase tungsten filament (µg) in VFDsBase total metal value $0.02–0.15 per tube
D
Photomultiplier Tubes (PMTs)
Ag 0.1–2 g per tubeAu 0–20 mg per tubeBase BeCu dynodes with an activated BeO surface
D
Reed Switches & Reed Relays
Base Ru ~50–80 µg per switchBase Rh ~0.2–0.5 mg per switchCu ~40 g/lb
D
Whole hard drives
Au 0.05–0.15 g/lbNd magnetsBase aluminium casting
D