At every material reclamation plant, recycling equipment is needed to separate, grind, shred, and crush items so that they can be used again. Reclaiming materials in this way requires precision, because contamination can lead to defects in products or cause mechanical failure. To that end, most of the effort at these plants is spent to make sure everything is separated correctly. Once it is, it can be reduced enough in size so that it can be stored or melted down.
Most separation that’s done at a reclamation plant utilizes gravity, air streams, and detection equipment to slowly fish out different categories of material. The most efficient way to separate metal from glass, plastic, and paper, however, is with magnets. At iron and steel reclamation plants, powerful, crane-suspended electromagnets are handy for picking up large loads of material. These pieces of recycling equipment are designed to attract ferrous metals like iron, steel, or tin. These metals are then directed into an alternative production stream.
To separate aluminum (which is nonferrous) from other metals, an eddy current is put in motion. An eddy current is created by changing magnetic fields in a conductor. This produces a repulsion effect in conductive, nonferrous materials like aluminum, which can then be sifted out from other scrap.
Once everything is properly separated, the items must be compacted and uniformly shaped so that they can be used as raw material again. Recycling equipment designed for this purpose is used to shred, crush, or grind objects down to size. Granulators can process massive amounts of substances at once. They can grind items with cutting edges that fit together like a wall of bladed wheels. These are ideal for reducing rubber, polymers, and glass.
A pulverizer makes use of impact force to break apart large particles into uniformly-sized pieces. While the technology found in these machines are varied in their approach, one of the more popular designs uses air sweeping technology. These machines are versatile enough to handle any number of items. The material is fed into the pulverizer, which exposes the items to impact plates and grinding hammers. At the end of the process, if the material is too large, it is rejected and run through the device again. Over time, this creates a uniformly-sized mass.
Crushers are also varied in their design, although most feature a rotating drum with a cutting edge. This edge exerts extremely high levels of pressure on items fed into the machine, reducing its size. Recycling equipment designed for this purpose is typically used for plastics and polymers. These machines can also be outfitted with USDA-certified parts that make them suitable for food processing.
Shredders are the heavy hitters of the recycling equipment world. Materials that resist impact or grinding are easier to handle with a shredder. This includes high volumes of paper, cardboard, woods, and some plastics. What they are most used for, however, are metals. Metals are difficult to process using crushers or grinders. Shredders, by contrast, are high torque devices that contain dozens of cutting edges. They are typically affixed to a series of drums. These machines are so powerful that they can shred 55 gallon drums and automotive parts. |
