Eriez ProSort Metal Sorting Machine Provides New Solution To Recycling Industry
Erie, PA — After successful field tests and end user accolades, Eriez® introduces the new ProSort Metal Sorter, designed specifically to the needs of the metals recycling industry.
The Eriez ProSort Metal Sorter uses a traditional conveyor belt and sensors to detect metals, then, instead of costly air reject systems, cost-effective electromechanical paddles are used to reject material.
Traditional Industry Designs
Recycling facilities that use metal-sorting machines typically install them downstream of Eddy Current Separators to capture valuable metals that might otherwise end up in a landfill. Shredded automobiles, white goods and other scrap move over a vibratory feeder onto a conveyor belt traveling at approximately 500 feet per minute. Sensors under the belt then detect pieces of metal traveling above and trigger air jets to blow metal over a splitter while the rest of the material falls off the end of the belt.
Operators are finding that a constant, large volume of clean, dry air is expensive and a major headache, as air compressors in the range of 125 hp or larger are required to furnish the high volume of air necessary to operate these systems.
Introducing the Eriez Metal Sorter
The new Eriez ProSort Metal Sorter employs a series of two-inch wide "electromagnetic motorized paddles" to reject metals instead of traditional air nozzles.
These paddles are positioned side-by-side in a bank as wide as the belt, so when the sensors detect a piece of metal on the belt, the control circuit energizes the appropriate paddle at the moment the metal passes above, causing it to be diverted from the product stream.
The Eriez ProSort provides a cleaner production facility and cleaner metal product compared to traditional units because compressed air has more influence on the light fluff and dust than it has on the heavier metal it is attempting to move. On the other hand, the ProSort's mechanical paddles positively displace metals without blowing fluff into the metals and dust into the air.
In fall 2006, Eriez installed a prototype 26-inch wide ProSort Metal Sorter for field-testing at Liberty Iron and Metal Company of Erie, Pa. Design traits were verified, and ultimately, the customer confirmed that ProSort was preferred over existing air-sort units. The original unit continues to operate today, along with a recently installed 84-inch unit.
Eriez' ProSortMetal Sorter is impressive to watch as the motorized paddles quickly kick out metals from the material stream flowing off the belt. The test site unit proved so successful, Liberty Iron and Metal Company ordered two more units for additional sites,
SOURCE: Eriez