Tapping Into Wire & Cable

Scrap triple-phase power cable in a customer’s yard, waiting to be processed. Large quantities such as these are often shipped to specialised cable and wire recyclers. Photo courtesy of Sweed Machinery.

The high price of copper has affected the cable and wire processing industry and equipment options in many ways.

Higher transportation and landfilling costs are also affecting this segment, as processors try to get the most bang for their buck where shipping is concerned, while reducing the amount of material sent to landfills.

The factors have had equipment makers largely going to extremes, focusing on both low- and high-capacity cable processing customers. Toward that end, some of the newest processing systems put on the market in recent months have been targeted at smaller capacity processors, while others have been launched for high volume processors looking to maintain or even increase their capacities.

A related trend is processors’ increasing likelihood to further clean the plastic remnants produced during separation in an effort to reclaim every bit of copper flake that might remain.
 

Adding Value
Eldan Recycling, based in Faaborg, Denmark, says it has responded to a variety of customer trends concerning capacity. Flemming Hansen, product manager with Eldan, says he’s seen increasing interest and demand for cable recycling equipment at both ends of the capacity spectrum, particularly as copper values have climbed over the last five or six years.

The company began offering its Micro-Module processing system a year ago to meet the demands of smaller capacity recyclers. The module is designed for processors handling up to 250 kilograms per hour of insulated copper or aluminium wire, pre-cut to lengths of no more than 250 mm, and with diameters up to approximately 20 mm. The system, which can be moved with a forklift, costs around €70,000, Hansen said, and consists of a small granulator, separation table and filter (with bag emptying and cleaning of filter hoses). He says the module appeals to smaller yards that might have previously sold their unprocessed cable when copper prices were lower. The separation table gives metal purity of approximately 99.5% and up, Hansen says.

Similarly, U.S.-based Sweed Machinery, which has historically focused on the large-volume processing of power transmission cable, is designing mid-range systems for reclaiming copper. Sweed’s president, Scott Ashpole, says the company plans to build a separation system around a 40-horse granulator for the processing of jacketed copper cable. Ashpole contends this growing segment of the market is interested in processing 10,000 to 20,000 pounds per month. “That’s where this small to mid-size niche is really starting to develop for people,” he says.

Top: Sweed Machinery’s 5703 copper/aluminium separation system configured for a smaller capacity processor. The system chops and separates tri-plex and other jacketed aluminium or copper cables. Bottom: Eldan Recycling’s FG952 fine granulator, as part of a system with a capacity of about 2.5 tonnes per hour.

To that end, Sweed is working with customers to design systems based on their needs. “We’re segueing off of our large systems and a lot of the expertise we have there into doing some of the smaller stuff as well,” he said.

Copper prices may be one trigger for this segment’s growth, observes Ashpole, but there are other factors too, namely higher transportation costs. This wasn’t the case one or two decades ago, he notes.

Likewise, Ashpole says, more recyclers are realising that processing wire and cable adds value to the material, particularly since copper can account for 70 percent of a cable’s weight. “By processing and compacting, you’re eliminating a lot of the handling and shipping that goes along with moving that stuff around,” he said.

Antonio Balestrino with Guidetti Recycling Systems, Renazzo, Italy, observes that more scrap dealers want to process their own cable because of increased export restrictions. Fierce competition is yet another factor, Balestrino said, resulting in reduced margins across the board, which correlates with an increased interest in adding value to recycled materials.

“Our company has taken care of small plants for many years,” Balestrino says. “We can offer more than 20 different solutions covering capacity from 20 to 3,000 kilograms per hour and all the kinds of cable available.”
 

Higher Capacity
While most manufacturers acknowledge there’s growth in the small capacity sector, some say the higher-volume segment is also looking to grow. For instance, Ashpole says Sweed has seen a high demand for its Model 5703 XHD Magnetic Separator System, built for processing high volumes of ACSR (aluminium core steel reinforced cable), and also its large cable separation system, which incorporates a 125-hp pre-chopper with a 100-hp granulator, for chopping and separating multi-strand communications cable, power transmission and insulated copper wire. “I haven’t seen any transmission or regular cable that won’t go through,” he says. “If you have more than a million pounds per year to deal with, this definitely starts making sense.”

Bobby Childers, MTB sales specialist with Wendt Corp., based in Tonawanda, N.Y., agrees there’s been more interest in processing among smaller and higher capacity processors alike. Wendt is the exclusive North American distributor for MTB Recycling of Trept, France, which manufactures nonferrous recycling equipment and also is one of Europe’s largest processors of cable and wire.

“We have had a tremendous amount of activity over the last two years for our MTB equipment,” saiysChilders. He says traditionally, high-volume choppers have focused primarily on high-yield copper cable to justify the chopping cost. Meanwhile, thinner low-yield wire, such as household electrical and CAT-5 wire, was generally baled at a lower cost and then exported to China.

Childers says, though, the scenario has changed. “When the value goes as high as its gone, the cost of chopping makes a little more sense,” he says. But he says MTB has, with some exceptions, largely kept intact its business focus, as a manufacturer of high-volume equipment.

MTB’s new BDR 2400 HD pre-chopper has a capacity of 35 tons per hour or more, the company says.

“The owner of MTB has made the conscious decision not to get into the small, all-in-one machines,” Childers said. One exception to this strategy, however, has been the company’s newest product offering, a system designed to process the insulated copper wire (ICW) from auto shredder residue (ASR). It has recently been marketed to Wendt’s larger auto shredder customers, Childers explains. “They are collecting a lot of insulated copper wire from their auto shredder residue,” he said. That wire was previously landfilled or sold off at a very low price.

Still, Childers observes, ICW from ASR is just one industry segment. “The high value of copper is going to keep everybody interested,” he concedes. And, he notes, traditional high-volume processors will continue to compete because high-volume operations require a high amount of raw feedstock. They also tend to offer a highly consistent product and have well developed end markets, Childers said.

MTB has targeted this higher capacity market with its new BDR 2400 HD, made available for sale in 2012. Childers says the system is built and staged as a large capacity pre-chopper that can handle 35-plus tons per hour.

“When one of these larger companies decides to consolidate and wants to do all of its copper cable chopping in one central location, it can dump everything right there and chop it,” Childers explained.

Eldan has also responded to the calls for higher capacity systems. Hansen says he’s seen even the largest customers wanting to increase their capacities by as much as 50 percent or more in recent years. “We see more customers today are coming in asking for higher capacity on their existing Eldan cable plants,” Hansen said.
 

The Plastic Fraction
Another trend among recyclers has been giving a second look at insulation fragments. “There’s been more interest in being able to get more copper out of the plastic fractions,” Hansen explained. He says fractions can contain as much as 4% copper. To extract this, the company has recommended an added cleaning operation in many cases. It makes sense, Hansen says, because of copper prices. One of Eldan’s options has been the addition of a classifier at the end of the standard processing line to shake remaining copper flakes from chopped insulation. While the classifier isn’t new, Hansen said there has been increasing demand for this kind of simple sorting technology as copper prices have held firm. He says the classifier is designed for smaller cables (hair wire, communications cable, etc.) and can remove as much as half or more of the remaining copper flakes. The company also is exploring other technologies, such as a roller mill, which makes it easier to separate remaining copper from plastic.

Childers agrees most choppers have begun reprocessing their plastic. “Technology in some areas has really helped find the smaller, let’s call it, zero to 12 mm metal,” Childers said. MTB came out with its MagPro in 2009, a vertical eddy current designed to capture zero to 12 mm aluminium/copper and separate it from plastic.

The author is managing editor of Recycling Today Global Edition and can be reached at lmckenna@gie.net.