Triple M commissions downstream system

Triple M Metals, a Canadian-based scrap metal recycling firm, has commissioned a new downstream system at its 3-acre facility in Hamilton, Ontario. The equipment has been designed to process the auto shredder residue (ASR) generated at Triple M’s three Ontario auto shredders. Prior to the installation of the downstream system, Triple M was shipping the ASR to another recycling firm where the material was processed and saleable material was recovered.

The system, from Buffalo, N.Y.-based Wendt Corp., cost $25 million and will extract zorba from the ASR, which will then be shipped to consumers throughout the world, including China. Construction on the system began in February 2013.

Tom Anderson, Triple M’s vice president of engineering and mill services, worked extensively with Wendt on the installation. He says that when the system is fully operational it will be able to handle around 60 tons of ASR per hour (20,000 tons per month). He estimates that with the downstream system the company will be able to extract an additional 10 to 12 percent of the ASR into a saleable material, mostly scrap metal. The ASR will be trucked to the site for processing.

Anderson notes that while the downstream system is not extracting plastic scrap presently, it has the capability to do so in the future.

The new plant allows Triple M to extract a range of materials, including plastic-coated copper wire, sorting them out into heaps ready for shipping anywhere in the world while diverting the waste stream to a pile outside that is then shipped to a landfill in southern Ontario.

Tom Wendt with Wendt Corp., the manufacturer of the downstream system, says the equipment, including a TiTech finder, also will allow Triple M to extract coppers fines, insulated copper and mixed metals from the ASR.
“It adds a significant benefit to the company as opposed to just landfilling the material,” Wendt says.