Developer and manufacturer of process equipment for the recycling and secondary recovery industry, Eriez Magnetics Europe, has introduced a new, advanced fines processing system. Termed the FinesSort, it provides a cost-effective method for recovering metals from the classified fines in a scrap shredding operation. The fines typically represent minus ½ inch material screened from the process stream. Until now, this material has been too small to treat with conventional process equipment, so it was usually sent to landfill. The FinesSort now recovers the previously lost metals, turning a waste stream into cash flow.

The FinesSort system features a feeder coupled to a magnetic separator and Eddy-Current Separator to produce both a ferrous and non-ferrous metal product. The feeder delivers a uniform feed distribution across the width of the magnetic drum separator, with the magnetic separator recovering all ferrous materials in the process stream. The non-ferrous materials from the magnetic separation are delivered to the Eddy-Current Separator, where non-ferrous metals such as copper and aluminium are recovered.

Tim Shuttleworth, Eriez President and CEO, states: “The unique feature of the system is the alternative it provides to further processing the ferrous metal product with an optional second stage magnetic drum separator. This is not the case with other systems. The high value product is the non-ferrous material recovered by the Eddy-Current Separator, not the weakly magnetic ferrous material recovered by the magnetic separator. Further processing of the ferrous product may not be necessary. For this reason we have made the second magnetic drum an option. This second stage magnetic separator can be added if a clean ferrous product is a priority.”