Sweed Sifter promises to capture copper

Sweed Machinery, Gold Hill, Oregon, says it has strengthened its modular wire and cable separation system to allow users of the wire chopping systems to increase the amount of copper they can extract. The company also says its wire chopping system takes up minimal space.

From the electrical panel to the layout design, Sweed says additional components can be added to its system as a scrap metal recycler’s scrap wire and cable volume increases.

A new, optional feature of Sweed’s separation system is the Sweed Sifter, which is added to the last stage of processing. With the Sifter a scrap dealer can extract more copper, aluminum and fines material that can unintentionally be trapped in the plastic scrap after the separation process, the company says.

Depending on the type of material being processed, the vibrating Sifter provides an increase of copper recovery ranging from 0.2 to 0.3 percent input weight, recovering up to 40 pounds of copper per hour.

The Sweed Sifter can be installed on any existing Sweed separation system or added to any other manufacturer’s system in order to achieve higher recovery rates.

Sweed says expansion of its systems is simple and can be done in steps: adjoin a Sweed 5703 rotary shear to process large coiled material; a Sweed Prechopper can be added to increase throughput by as much as 50 percent; and if two air tables are too much initially, Sweed can configure the wire chopping system with one table at first with room to add a second later on.