Recycling plant operator Recycled UK has purchased and installed seven magnetic separators that were designed, manufactured and supplied by Bunting Magnetics Europe Ltd., at its plant in Wolverhampton, U.K.
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Recycled UK says the separators have been installed to enhance metal separation and removal in its plastic waste management system. The company says it provides waste management solutions with an ability to recycle different grades of plastic scrap. Recycled UK offers its plastic waste management services to customers in more than 10 different industries.
Recycled UK was established in 2006 and relocated to its present site in 2009. Plastic scrap received by the firm comes from both primary manufacturing and secondary recycling channels in the U.K. Presently, the company handles and processes up to 200 metric tons per month of reground plastics.
Metal contamination is a serious issue at plastics recycling plants, both in costs in terms of production downtime and damage to equipment such as shredders and granulators. The level of metal contamination can vary, but the right detection equipment needs to be in place to prevent damage to granulator blades.
Paul Cotton, production director of Recycling UK Ltd., first met Bunting, based in Berkhamsted, U.K., at the Interplas plastics exhibition in Birmingham, England, in 2014. Cotton says that while he already had an idea of how to solve the problem, he met up with Carlton Hicks, Bunting’s UK sales manager.
To seek the best separation, Recycled UK installed two different magnetic separators. On the end of its conveyors it replaced its standard head drive pulleys with magnetic pulleys. Material is conveyed up and into the magnetic field of the magnetic pulley, where ferrous metal is attracted and held to the belt’s surface. Non-magnetic material falls under its normal trajectory, while the captured ferrous is held and then discharged into a separate collection bin underneath.
Recycled UK also installed four plate magnets of three different sizes. These magnets are high-strength rare earth magnet models, which replaced older ferrite magnets. The plate magnets have been installed in chutes on the discharge end of conveyors and also suspended over conveyors. The installed plate magnets remove and capture materials as small as fine iron filings from the conveyed plastic.
Since the installation of the magnets, Recycled UK says there have been no stoppages due to metal contamination. Prior to the installation, large and small metal contamination, including large wrenches, bolts, nails and washers, had passed through the plant.
“It was very good timing that we were ready to address the metal contamination problem when we met Carlton and Bunting at the Interplas exhibition,” says Cotton. “They came and visited our site soon after the exhibition and quoted us competitive prices that meant the project could go ahead straight away.”