Metalico purchases ASR plant from SGM Magnetics

SGM Magnetics Corp., Bradenton, Florida, has announced that it is supplying a 45-ton-per-hour turnkey auto shredder residue (ASR) plant to Metalico Inc., headquartered in Cranford, New Jersey, for installation at its facility in Hamburg, New York. Metalico is owned by Ye Chiu Group, one of the largest producers of secondary aluminum in Asia.

The new ASR plant will include SGM’s latest generation of high-frequency eddy current separators, air classifiers and high-resolution sensor sorters. In addition to supplying the equipment, SGM is managing construction of the entire plant.

Metalico’s Buffalo Shredding and Recovery subsidiary operates the Hamburg facility. The system will allow Metalico to generate high-quality commodities that include ferrous, zorba, zurik and insulated and bare copper wire. The plant will process ASR from three different shredders owned by Metalico: one that is in the same facility as the ASR plant, another in Pittsburgh and a third in Youngstown, Ohio.

Joe McGough, vice president of engineering and shredder operations for Metalico, says: “This is a significant project for us and required a lot of research of many of the shred nonferrous equipment suppliers. Simply put, we did the work. While all the vendors we spoke with offered great products, we concluded that SGM Magnetics was the best value.”

McGough continues, “The service support and engineering staff at SGM Magnetics has been excellent. SGM has gone above and beyond to address our needs. A severe winter weather conditions package was incorporated through the plant. Increased capacity was added to the compressors, trommel and batch feeder. High-quality conveyors and platforms, along with AR (abrasion resistant) plate at the cyclone aspirators, were incorporated in the design. This is one tough plant.”

Cold New York winters and the ability to run the plant regardless of weather conditions were big concerns for Metalico. SGM says it has paid special attention to these concerns and has designed a system capable of running at designed capacity, even during challenging conditions. This involved special consideration for the electrical cabinets, compressed air system and equipment, the supplier says.

The new plant is scheduled to be fully operational by the end of 2017, SGM says.