MeWa Supplies Tire Recycling Plant in Kazakhstan

Germany-based MeWa Recycling Maschinen und Anlagenbau GmbH has recently put into operation the first tire recycling plant in the country of Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan Rubber Recycling will produce what it says is a clean rubber granulate and an active fine powder for use in road construction.

According to a MeWa press release, long roads and drastic differences in winter and summer temperatures pose a special challenge for road construction in Kazakhstan. However, the active fine powder produced by the plant can be added to the bitumen and substantially increase the quality and lifespan of asphalt, says the company.

The new plant was inaugurated at the beginning of July in the nation’s capital of Astana with participation from government representatives. The privately-owned Kazakhstan Rubber Recycling will process around 11,000 of used HGV and car tires per year using MeWa technology, the company says.

Tires with a diameter of up to 1.5 meters will be fed into a MeWa UC 150 rotary shear. The machine breaks the tires up into approximately palm-sized shreds with the low-wear cutting system. A granulation line from MeWa then gradually breaks these shreds down into a granular size of around eight millimeters. After each step in the process, different separation techniques will sort the textiles, stones and steel cord from the rubber, according to the company.

Granulators then grind the granulate down further into grain sizes of between 0 to 4 millimetres. According to MeWa, 99.95% by weight of the secondary raw material is free of steel and textile lint at the end of the processing chain. This granulate is used for the production of floors in sports facilities and children’s playgrounds, rubber mats for housing and agriculture, and for moulded part products in road and garden.

Currently, the plant is being extended to include a special fine grinding process. A fine grinding stage developed by MeWa then processes the granulate further into the active fine rubber powder. The flexible fine rubber powder will be used in future road construction.