Scrap Industry Processing Equipment

Specialized Machinery Leads to Better Prices.

The scrap industry has witnessed remarkable progress thanks to specially designed machinery that not only improves efficiency but also slashes labor and transportation costs. From transporting materials to breaking them down, and separating or condensing them, there’s a machine for every task. Through advancements in AI, optical sorting, and cutting-edge technologies, the industry is improving even further.

Here are some of the most common scrap metal processing equipment and their exceptional features:

Shear – There are many types of shears found in scrap metal recycling facilities. Common shear types include hydraulic alligator shear, guillotine shear, handheld guillotine shear, and mobile rotating shear. The purpose of shearing is to cut metal down to size so that it can fit in bins, containers, and trailers or to upgrade and separate material. Alligator and guillotine shears are stationary machines, whereas a handheld guillotine shear can be transported to cut catalytic converters and the like off vehicles or remove wire and cable from spools. Mobile rotating shears are attached to an excavator and are used to cut larger pieces of metal.

Bailer – used to compact material into a dense package. This reduces footprint and transportation costs.

Portable Scrap Bailer/Logger – portable machine used to bail large, bulky metals.

Wire Stripper – removes the outer coating from wires, and exposes the copper. This improves the price per pound of the material when sold.

Wire Chopper – cuts wire into smaller pieces and separates the jacketing waste, producing a higher-density package.

Material Handler – a machine with a boom fitted with grapples or a magnet. Used to load and unload trucks with ferrous material, move metals in bulk, and process larger units into components.

Forklift –a lift truck that transports materials around the yard. It has movable forks and can pick up pallets, bins, and other items.

Front-end loader – a vehicle used to pick up and move materials. It can push scrap piles or pick up material and transport it in its bucket.

Skid steer loader – a vehicle with lift arms that can attach to a wide variety of buckets and other labor-saving tools or attachments.

Can and Bottle Sorters – a machine that separates bottles and cans.

Can Compactors – a container that accepts aluminum or other types of cans and contains a hydraulic press that compacts cans and squeezes out any liquids. The liquids can then be drained out and recycled responsibly. The compaction of the cans makes the load denser, and this increase in weight can reduce transportation costs.

Eddy current separators – provide temporary magnetism to otherwise non-magnetic metals to facilitate sorting by machine.

Sweat furnace – recovers pure aluminum ingot or sows from irony aluminum and dirty aluminum.

Shredder – uses rotating knives or hammers to reduce metal into smaller pieces for further sorting and to remove contaminants and non-metallics known in the industry as fluff.

Scales – used to weigh customer material. Scales come in many varieties. There are truck scales, which weigh empty and full trucks; platform scales, which weigh smaller amounts of material; and mobile scales, which can weigh trucks on the go.

Hand-held tools – can include drills, impact wrenches, saws, etc.

Car Crushers – specifically designed to compress the remains of a car after it has been stripped of all its valuable parts.