Less wear for economically efficient processing of ASR

Residual materials from shredders from automobile recycling is made up of a wide variety of different materials. In addition to plastic, rubber, and textile fibers, ASR contains valuable non-ferrous metals such as aluminum, brass, and copper, as well as mineral components and glass. The latter makes efficient processing difficult, which Jansen Shredder Recycling learned the hard way.

In the original process, Jansen separated heavy particles by means of a cross-flow separator and pre-crushed the remaining fraction in a granulator. A non-ferrous fraction could then be extracted from the material using eddy current separation. The non-inductive fraction, contained valuable non-ferrous metals in addition to plastics and minerals. These non-ferrous metals were copper cables and composites. Up until this point, Jansen used fine-grinding mills directly after eddy current separation to recover this fraction of the remaining metals. However, this is exactly where the weakness in the otherwise sophisticated procedure stemmed from: with €35 per ton of input material, the wear costs of the fine-grinding mills used were unexpectedly high. The profits from the recovered metals could not make up for these losses. This meant a new solution was required.

Jansen Shredder Recycling turned to BHS-Sonthofen. The Dutch company was already familiar with the rotor impact mill (type RPMX) from BHS. In order to ensure that the mill from BHS was capable of pulverizing abrasive materials and dissolving and pelletizing non-ferrous materials, Jansen traveled to Sonthofen with the original input material and performed the corresponding tests with the recycling experts onsite.

As it turned out, results were convincing. The mill reliably destroyed glass and minerals. Due to its solid construction and chilled cast chrome wear parts, it is extremely resistant, and, therefore, ideal for processing ASR fractions, as is done at Jansen Shredder Recycling. “Adding the rotor impact mill from BHS to the process as an intermediate step resulted in a significant increase in profits,” reports Hans Brekelmanns, Managing Director at Jansen Shredder Recycling. “We were able to lower wear costs by approximately 75 percent overall.”