Sorting System from TITECH Produces 99.9% Pure Copper from Cable

23 November 2012 TITECH has launched the combisense high-precision sorting system for copper wire and cable recyclers which enables a purity of 99.9% to be achieved. According to the company - a part of TOMRA Sorting Solutions (TOM:NO) - using the combisense, customers are able to achieve much lower levels of foreign metals in their output streams by allowing granulate to pass through the high-precision sorting system twice, in a batch process. The manufacturer added that depending on the exact task, input and grain size, the system can sort between one and three tonnes of copper per hour. Copper granulate, recovered by the recycling process of copper wires and cables, has the potential to be a high value resource. However, as Jonathan Clarke, country manager for TOMRA Sorting UK explained, even after the removal of impurities, polymers and ferrous from the granulate, it can still contain small amounts of lead, brass or aluminium - often up to 3%. According to Clarke, by upgrading the copper fraction to a purity of 99.9% the value of the material can be increased by 30%, but common sorting technologies, such as eddy current sorter or densimetric tables, do not remove all impurities. "We have therefore developed the combisense which removes the granulate's remaining pollutants efficiently and automatically, and is particularly effective at extracting lead," he said. "Our machine uses optical free fall detection and high speed air jets to separate materials," concluded Clarke. Read More TITECH Sorting Equipment for 25tph C&I Recycling Plant in UK TITECH is to supply equipment to one of the UK's largest automated Commercial and Industrial Materials Recycling Facilities (MRF) in the UK, which will be a part of Weir Waste Services' development of its 'Trinity Street' depot in Oldbury, West Midlands. Negative to Positive Sorting Reaching for the stars with SATURN Started in 2009 in Salzgitter, Germany the SATURN project set about demonstrating how sensor based sorting technologies can be optimised to recover significant volumes of increasingly valuable non-ferrous metals from mixed municipal solid waste. Bastian Wens reports on the results. Talking Trash: Scrap Metal Theft As metal prices have risen on the world markets over recent years, so has the age old problem of metal theft. Around the world municipal, transport and communications infrastructure, as well as religious and cultural property have been targeted by metal thieves. WMW asks some of the world's leading experts what is being done about it, and what more governments, law enforcement agencies and the recycling industry itself could do to combat the issue. Free Magazine Subscription Free Email Newsletter