Access leads to optimal sorting results

The word partnership can perhaps be overused when it comes to vendor-customer relationships. Providers of sorting equipment and technology, however, are clear that a high level of cooperation, shared information and trust between equipment makers and users will produce the best results.

The close alliances are increasingly necessary, say equipment makers such as Bulk Handing Systems (BHS) and Tomra Sorting Recycling, because very little that happens inside a material recovery facility (MRF) or other recycling plant occurs on an island.

For secondary commodity buyers to receive pure shipments, a start-to-finish integrated process is increasingly necessary to achieve both the quantity and quality results that lead to profitability, each of the two competing firms indicate.

Evaluate and adjust

The MRF infrastructure in Europe and North America is well established, and even a greenfield installation likely is building off existing capacity and processes. For recyclers and equipment providers alike, that makes ongoing evaluation critical.

Steve Miller, the CEO of United States-based BHS, says, “For us, with any potential opportunity, it all starts with getting to know our customers and their businesses, including: growth plans, current and future volume/shift expectations, tipping fees and contracts, labor availability and rates, market expectations and quality requirements, etc. This is all very important when it comes to proposing the changes that will maximize our customers’ long-term success and profitability.”

Germany-based Tomra Sorting GmbH, part of Norway-based Tomra Systems ASA, takes a similar approach, according to Tom Eng, senior vice president and head of Tomra Sorting Recycling. Comments Eng, “Using quantifiable data from the process, and especially from the sorting equipment, one can make fact-based decisions. Solutions like Tomra Insight collect data not only on the sorter performance and condition, but also on the product being processed throughout the process.”

Miller says of he and his BHS colleagues, “When we audit a process, we believe in a personal and hands-on approach. We look at how each processing step affects our customer’s performance – throughput, recovery, purity and uptime. We also evaluate revenue and cost drivers to look for opportunities to drive profits.”

Says Eng, “By assessing the plant with our experienced sales force or application engineers, one can determine an optimal layout for optimized operations and highest sorting performance. This in the end also includes physical layout and additional technologies to be deployed.” Eng says Tomra also has test centers where it can analyze matches between material and equipment arrays.

Sometimes the solution (and the customer’s budget) involves just a single step. “Sometimes the best solution may be simple, like adding one piece of equipment,” says Miller.

However, in an industry where: a) infeed material gets more complex; b) secondary commodity buyers expect higher purity levels, and c) available technology changes monthly, a MRF retrofit could be comprehensive.

In recognition of changing technology in particular, Tomra held an online event in June it called “A Symphony of all Sorts,” looking at how its existing and new equipment can work together. Both companies see this concept of integration as a critical trend.

In it together

While one piece of new or modified equipment sometimes is sufficient, Miller says other projects will be much more comprehensive. “It could involve complex changes to material routing, re-using or modifying existing equipment while also adding some new equipment, and all while creating a layout that allows for expansion because the customer plans to add capacity in three years. You really have to dive deep to see the big picture in order to come back to the customer with the winning solution.”

Cooperation with the customer is one key aspect, but so too is cooperation within the vendor’s own organization. “The cooperation across numerous departments makes it possible to coordinate this effort with the best expertise,” says Eng. “Tomra invests approximately 8 percent of its revenue in R&D to improve existing technology and investigate new promising approaches, like integrating modern artificial intelligence (AI) in the sorting machines.”

Says Miller regarding the BHS approach, “This is a very hands-on business, and we invest considerably to make sure we develop our people and apply our expertise in the field. We do this in the sales process, but also during our installation, commissioning and ongoing optimization phases.”

At the customer’s MRF, when cooperation extends to the plant operator, that can lead to the best results, say the vendors, especially when it comes to pilot testing. BHS customers “are an integral part of our development process and appreciate our efforts to improve their operation’s performance as much as they appreciate being the first to have the latest and greatest,” says Miller.

“Customers are very excited to get the latest Tomra equipment,” says Eng. “They regard us as their trusted partner, so they completely trust us, our expertise, service and our sorting solutions.”

Such trust may be helping vendors deploy new technology such as deep learning, AI and robotic arms. “In the case of a robotic sorter, like the Max-AI AQC, it’s quite often a ‘no brainer,’” says Miller. “It’s a straightforward financial calculation based on costs, revenue improvements and reduced operating costs.”

However, that calculation can involve fist setting up a mobile Max-AI VIS (Visual Identification System) at a customer site “for significant periods of time,” says Miller. “This gives us a thorough and complete analysis of the material stream with very high levels of accuracy. This level of analysis was simply not feasible before Max, and it helps us evaluate the customer needs and customize our neural network framework for that facility.”

Tomra says its customers often are looking at ways to minimize hand sorting. “If there are a lot of hand-picking stations, we might suggest new technologies or robots that can be used to upgrade MRFs without the need to reengineer to use optical sorters,” says Eng. “Our technologies can be easily installed and retrofitted into existing plants.”

Such suggestions, however, occur after “analyzing pre-sorting and pre-treatment processes of the MRF (such as windsifting, screening, shredding, metal separation with magnets and eddy current separators, material distribution on conveyor belt),” remarks Eng. “Based on the analysis results, we suggest updates with new technology contributing to an optimization of processes.”

If there ever was an era of “hit and run” MRF sorting equipment sales, it seems to have faded into the past.

Eng says of Tomra, “We only sell machines if it is valuable for the customer and assists the customer with their business case. Therefore, it is important to be in a continuous dialog with the customers to know the existing challenges.”

Miller cites the same spirit of vendor-plant operator cooperation, and he sees it staying firmly in place. “While we are confident in our development and testing, there are always things that we find once in the field to improve – and we make those improvements,” he comments. “It’s very much a collaboration, and that’s something that our early adopters understand and appreciate – we want to make a new solution as successful as possible and we will be there onsite until it is.”